There’s a decision that any fan of a TV show getting turned into a movie has to make: Are you there for the world or for the story? Despite all the show runners claiming their series are 10-hour-movies, they just aren’t. The pacing is different in a movie. A show has time to breathe and even waste time. Characters end up popular not for popping in a scene or two but because of a sustained presence. If you are approaching a film adaptation of a beloved show you need to think about what you want out of it. You aren’t getting the story. Shows are designed for doses of plot and payoff after long time invested. In film, attempting that can feel listless or jammed in.
Think of the Breaking Bad movie, El Camino. I’ve described that as watching a couple OK episodes of Breaking Bad. There wasn’t the time for the exquisite arcing of the show. It had to introduce and resolve a single main story in under 2 hours. And even that movie only works because it sticks to one major character. There was no need for the A-B-C story structure that can fee intrusive in movies. And still, the appeal of El Camino is “I want to check in on Jesse Pinkmin” or “I just want to be in that world for a couple more hours”. Another example is the Psych movies they keep making. As movies, they are awful. I don’t care though. I’m just there to hang out with Shawn and Gus.
This is what you need to consider before going into Downton Abbey: A New Era. Is it a great movie? No. It’s overstuffed with characters and stories. There’s no natural plot. All the story comes to the characters unprompted and unearned. It’s a season of a TV show crunched into a film-sized box. I went into the first Downton Abbey movie having seen none of the show. I was curious how lost I would be and was surprised by how much I could follow. I’ve seen the whole series now can say that A New Era doesn’t try as hard to win over the uninitiated. This is a movie for the fans. The mission of the film is to give all the characters at least one scene to shine. It’s about wrapping up every conceivable storyline and creating every happy ending possible. After the first movie, I imagined they could make a new one every couple years as long as the cast was willing. A New Era, despite the title, is an end. It leaves everyone in a satisfying place. There could still be another movie, I suppose, but there wouldn’t be the same need to include everyone in it.
The first film was built around one big event: a visit from the King and Queen. A New Era has two major events: a film production comes to Downton Abbey and several members of the family visit a newly inherited French summer estate. It’s too much for one movie, but who cares really? The cast is in the dozens with established and new characters. It’s pointless to go over what’s going on with them all. I’ll just say that Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Bay, and Dominic West are among the new faces and they all fit right in.
Personally, all I wanted out of A New Era was to spend a little time with characters I’ve come to like. It passes the “Is it as good as a few episodes of the show?” test. As long as you expect nothing more than that, Downton Abbey: A New Era is worthwhile. At the end of the day, it is still a story about everything working out for a group of rich people in the 1920s.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment