“Our lives are lived in chapters, and there’s nothing wrong when one chapter ends and another begins” (Mrs. Patmore, in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale).
The thematic topics of chapters and change in the final Downton Abbey film felt especially poignant to me as I navigate shifts in this chapter of all three daughters in college.
I recently joined some friends from my English department to watch the film together, and it was a wonderful collection of moments.
The film held many layers of foreshadowing, symbolism, and structured glimmers which honored fan favorites of the series, while introducing new ideas, characters, and possibilities.
In such a feature film, certain aspects have to move quickly, but so does 1930 with its almost-dangerous idealism. Noble class families face era of maintaining customs and noting the expenses and alterations of their time. Which way does the wind of change blow?
Writer Julian Fellowes provided closure for so many meaningful storylines.
The ideas of being open to new possibilities, to change as the chapters of life unfurl, and to remain faithfully committed to important relationships, all seemed worthy messages.
Costumes, caricatures, and nostalgia, accompanied by resonant music, formed momentous layers, which felt so honoring to fifteen years of stories.
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