What May really thought of the Downton Abbey movie

When someone asks me what I thought of the Downton Abbey movie, it feels just like when I went to a long-awaited and very exclusive wedding that everyone wanted to know HOW it was. Because how do you politely say that something that people you care a lot about (yes, I mean Mrs. Patmore and Violet Crawley too) worked really hard on is something you could only appreciate moderately? You can't, right?

So let's conveniently skip the question of how I felt about the movie. Rather ask me if it was nice to see everyone again. To that, my answer is a resounding yes. Wonderful. Man, I missed them so much. Robert Crawley with his dog, lady Mary, Tom of course, Anna Bates, sweet Elsie, Violet with her delightful phrases, so yes, I could have stayed there forever.

The direction is a fairy tale. In the opening scene, it feels like you are dancing with the estate. It must have been busy above Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed, because each drone shot is more beautiful than the last.

It also seems that the director held a competition with himself to keep a scene going as long as possible without cutting in the editing. The opening scene is an incredibly clever movement that just keeps going. It almost feels like you are sitting in the house, so clever.

I am also positively surprised by how much effort is put into the first scene, where a letter from the royal family arrives at the castle. You could have settled for a shot of the postman arriving with the letter, but no, we see the letter traveling from London to the station, with a steam train zooming through the most beautiful landscapes of England and thus eventually arriving at the Crawleys after many stages. The TV series already cost a million per episode, and it seems that in this film, they clearly didn't have to worry about the small stuff.

I enjoyed two hours, laughed (even out loud), cried (something with the old Violet), marveled at the direction, and thought a lot about how I will go see it again soon with my mother and that I will buy it – as soon as I can – via Pathé to watch it again at home during the Christmas holidays with my girls. So: is it the best movie ever? Certainly not. Did it make me intensely happy and do I want to watch it thirteen more times? Absolutely.

Downton Abbey, in theaters starting tonight.

Main image: Vanityfair