Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) was directed by Simon Curtis. Julian Fellowes wrote the screenplay.

Almost all of the regulars from the TV series return in this movie, and they are as excellent as ever. Of course, Dame Maggie Smith stars in every scene in which she appears, but all the other regulars perform as well as they did on TV.

Unlike the 2019 movie, the plots are realistic, or at least within the realm of reason. Two main plots emerge in the first few minutes of the film. One is that a French nobleman has left the Dowager Countess (Smith) a beautiful villa in the south of France.

The other is that a film crew is going to use the abbey as the set of a major movie.

This is a must-see film for Downton Abbey fans. However, if you've never seen Downton Abbey, it probably won't work. (Too many back stories are omitted from the movie. The movie won't make sense if you don't know about them.)

The film has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I thought that it was better than that, and rated it 8.

Fans of the tv show and earlier film will get the most out of this, with plenty of dangling plot threads deftly picked up and woven into a satisfying series of resolutions.

There's plenty of strongly emotional moments here. It plays like one of the Christmas specials but more so, and combines an appropriately high stakes 19th century historical family mystery with an examination of an industry on the cusp of a revolution, as metaphor for Downton and the Crawleys doing their best to survive in a changing world. Hints are given how they will manage it.

This is not the place to start with Downton, and the movie assumes wise viewers know that. With so many characters, with so much history, the audience are given not so much introductions as little reminders.

As is traditional, Maggie Smith gets most of the best lines, but there are no weak performances. There's even a scattering of wisdom here and there among the drollery and drama.

Lovely to see the cast back again. Script and acting as good as ever. But this film was spoiled for me by the choice of director. In my opinion he just doesn't understand the essential appeal of the piece. Cut, cut, cut.......formulaic and totally out of keeping with the Downtown magic. Such a shame.he has turned this into just any old film rather than embracing the Downton feel. The whole thing feels a bit like a pastiche. Pace is all wrong and it lacks the period feel of both the tv series and the previous film. The whole effect is rather mechanical and lacking in charm which is a real pity.