Six seasons on PBS and three feature films later, the franchise of Downton Abbey looks like it’s coming to an end (unless this movie makes a ton on money).

The movie is set in 1930, a year after a stock market crash that threw the world into The Great Depression. The Crawley family is forced to tighten its economic belt but not so much that they’ve given up their staff of servants and their assorted holdings. Dower House, former residence of Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (the late Maggie Smith, honored with a dedication as well as oil painting of the countess looming over the front hall) remains along with renovation plans to generate cash.

The family is visited by American businessman Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti), brother of Cora Crowley (Elizabeth McGovern). Levinson’s brought another American, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), a financier who, Harold says, helped keep the matriarch’s side of the family solvent after the crash. Unfortunately, Gus made bad decisions after that, depleting the nest egg that the Crowleys thought they could break open to renovate Downton Abbey and turn it into a rental property that could generate future income.

” Lady Mary is getting a divorce, the news ripples through the surrounding community, making her a pariah among the high society people she used to call friends (even though they really weren’t). Some levity is added by actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West, totally believable as a Clark Gable-style movie star), who was at the center of the last movie. Dexter is reintroduced as the star of a London play by Noël Coward (Arty Froushan, who is absolutely credible playing one of the most charming men who ever lived).”

If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, don’t miss this! GRADE: B+