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Written by Julian Fellowes
Directed by Simon Curtis
Lady Mary Crawley (from the trailer): "Families like our must keep moving to survive and all of your support is more important to me than I can say."
It feels like the moment has been prepared for. In the span of fifteen years, we've had this world encompass six series, five Christmas specials and now three movies. Is it really the end? For now, seemingly so.
Last time we left things, Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) had died and her presence still was felt amongst the characters throughout this movie. Particularly with the ex Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery). Yup, she's a divorced woman and yes, for this era it was a scandal.
Mary being separated from Henry had her thrown out of a party organised by Lady Petersfield (Joely Richardson), much to the annoyance of Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern). Unfortunately as the movie progressed, Robert ended up channeling his anger at Mary for being a divorcee.
Yes, Mary somewhat dominated this last movie. Being a divorced woman made into something of a social pariah but it also made her vulnerable to the scheming conman, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola). The latter brought into Mary's orbit due to the return of Cora's brother, Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti). Harold's still a bad businessman by the way but he's at least nice to Mary during the whole movie.
Mary's plight also inspired playwright, Noël Coward (Arty Froushan) to put on a play named Private Lives. Froushan's portrayal of Coward was a big highlight in this movie. We got funny lines, a single song and an implied threeway relationship with him, Thomas Barrow (Robert James Collier) and Guy Dexter (Dominic West). Oh and Molesley (Kevin Doyle) was also rather taken with Noel to boot. He was easily my favourite character that wasn't one of the main family/staff members.
As for the rest of the movie, there's a true passing of the torch moment. Mary took over Downton while Robert and Cora moved into the Dowager's house. There's a beautifully touching final scene that evoked so much of the series rich past. I had a tear when I watched it and it was clever use of archive clips. It might rank as one of my favourite movie moments of 2025.
Elsewhere, the rest of the movie had nice moments with Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and Edith Pelham (Laura Carmichael) and Bertie (Harry Hadden-Paton) truly stepping up for Mary, along with Isobel Grey (Penelope Wilton) and even Daisy (Sophie McShera). Not to mention another look into Mary's relationship with Anna (Joanne Froggatt). As you can tell, this movie was very much Mary's from beginning to end and no, that wasn't a bad thing at all. Let the divorced diva be lady of the manor for a good few years.
- Henry cheated on Mary with another woman but hired a different one for the separation to be made official. All because Matthew Goode had scheduling conflicts for these movies.
- Cora and Harry's mother, Martha (Shirley McLaine) died between movies. There's also a tribute to Maggie Smith at the end of the movie.
- Anna and Mr Bates (Brendan Coyle) were expecting another child, while Molesley/Miss Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) and Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol)/Mr Mason (Paul Copley) got married between movies.
- Andy (Michael C Fox) succeeded Mr Carson (Jim Carter) as butler and there was some nice scenes with the latter and Mrs Carson (Phyllis Logan). Sir Hector Moorland (Simon Russell Beale) was also a minor thorn for Mary.
- Standout music: Arty Froushan's Poor Little Rich Girl.
- Chronology: 1930 at Downton Abbey for the majority of the movie as well London.
For a finale, I think Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale truly stuck the landing. It's a beautiful ending (for now) for this world and it had so many gorgeous character moments, dialogue and that last scene truly made the movie for me.
Rating: 9 out of 10
