Review: Hollywood comes to Downton Abbey in new film

The Crawleys are back and higher class than ever.

Downton Abbey: A New Era sees a film crew approach the Crawleys, wanting to use the Abbey as a filming location for a silent film.

They reluctantly agree after realising they could use the funds to fix the leaky roof of the Abbey.

Meanwhile, it's revealed that matriarch Violet has inherited a villa in the south of France from a man whom she may have had a dalliance with decades ago.

With half the family repulsed by the idea of Hollywood big-wigs in their sacred Downton, they set sail for France to solve the mystery of the inherited villa.

The film contains all the elements Downton Abbey has become world renowned for; every scene ends with an acerbic comment, there's high-class family drama and of course establishing shots of the Abbey are aplenty.

So does it live up to the show it follows on from? I've never actually had the pleasure of watching any of Downton Abbey til now, but there's still plenty of gold in these hills.

The cast is magnificent, with new cast member Dominic West the standout. Second of course to Dame Maggie Smith, who it is impossible to steal any scene away from.

Since the film juggles two plots simultaneously and attempts to give both equal screen time, it does feel a bit frantic in places.

This does mean though that if you prefer one storyline to the other, you won't go long without whichever it is that you prefer.

As a newcomer myself, I found one is definitely more accessible, while the other likely holds more weight for long time fans.

There's aristocratic melodrama and occasionally the film is overly sentimental, but as I came to learn over 125 minutes, that's exactly what we want from Downton Abbey.