Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, September 12

PG Running Time: 123 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Feels as if this provides genuine closure for the “Downton Abbey” series and franchise.

  • Less crowded from a storytelling standpoint, allowing nostalgia to have its moments while also proving surprisingly witty, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale sees a “less is more” approach overall reap some really nice rewards.

  • The costumes, production design, and cinematography was all flawless in their presentation and craftsmanship.

NO

  • Even casual fans like myself may feel lost with the callbacks and characters who resurface.

  • While it does help as escapism from the “real world,” this grand finale doesn’t really have all that much going on storyline-wise.

  • At times, this feels a bit too long and you just have to wonder … could this have been a streaming film or extended television product?


OUR REVIEW

No one could have predicted the week in which Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale would arrive in theaters. Amid a shocking wave of violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and several school shootings within days of each other, the country is reeling with every kind of intense emotion imaginable.

As fate would have it, in uncertain times, the third and final Downton Abbey film, The Grand Finale, provides a temporary salve to the pain and anguish around us right now. A palette cleanser of a film, it is peaceful, calm, and appropriately witty and melodramatic, a perfect diversion from a real world fraught with peril and tribalism.

From its opening tracking shot on a rainy London street in 1930, leading us into a stage production of playwright Noël Coward’s “Bitter Sweet,” this Grand Finale feels comforting. Inherently different from any other major studio release this year, the Downtonians in the audience will be smiling from ear-to-ear. The film not only pays fan service to those who have stuck through the entire run of the series, but adds a heartfelt, sentimental closure to a 15-year-old franchise that began rather unassumingly on Britain’s ITV in the fall of 2010.

Much of The Grand Finale, written again by Julian Fellowes, inhabits a light and breezy pacing. The dramatic heft comes from a handful of secrets being revealed, with Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) this film’s de facto main character. Upon disclosing her recent divorce, she becomes disinvited from social gatherings and essentially becomes branded with an almost literal scarlet letter.

Elsewhere, Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) is visited by her brother Harold (Paul Giamatti), who brings along a stranger named Gus (Alessandro Nivola). Gus, a financier, has helped rescue Harold from financial ruin after he squandered away much of their mother’s estate (the Dowager Countess, formerly played by the late Maggie Smith). Together, they appeal to the family for help in restoring what was lost.

Where previous films felt overstuffed and occasionally forced, Fellowes and Downton Abbey: A New Era director Simon Curtis embrace a “less is more” approach. There are plenty of characters with their own side stories. One recurring story involves former butler Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), now traveling with his “close friend” Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and the charismatic Coward (Arty Froushan). Eventually, they find themselves invited as guests to a lavish dinner party thrown by Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael).

As expected, The Grand Finale looks exquisite. The production design is gorgeous, Anna Robbins’ costumes are impeccable and Ben Smithard’s cinematography probes its way through the estate, capturing both the intimacy of emotion and the expansiveness of a location that has generated so many beloved memories.

Going in with modest expectations, I found the movie to be delightfully pleasant and rewarding. As a casual fan of Downton Abbey, and someone who has seen all three films and worked my way through the series a few years back, I found plenty to enjoy.

In a cinematic landscape dominated by blockbusters, sequels, remakes, and horror films, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale offers something soothing and easy to embrace. Fellowes and Curtis will most assuredly satisfy those fans who want to relive the pageantry of the series, while also getting swept up once again in all the melodrama which ensnares these characters in tiffs and disagreements.

As the film ends with a wistful remembrance, a quote from Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) rings true, once again, as a recurring theme in the film and series:

“What would be the point of living, if we didn’t let life change us?”

CAST & CREW

Starring: Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Paul Copley, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Paul Giamatti, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Lesley Nicol, Douglas Reith, Dominic West, Penelope Wilton, Arty Froushan, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, Joely Richardson

Director: Simon Curtis
Written by: Julian Fellowes
Based on the television series, “Downton Abbey,” created and written by Julian Fellowes
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Focus Features