By Ed Symkus

The concluding chapter in the Downton Abbey saga is a classy and entertaining multileveled melodrama that features excellent production values and a script with a light touch.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Simon Curtis. Screening nationwide

Michelle Dockery, right, with Allen Leech in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Photo: Rory Mulvey/Focus Features

Before sharing any thoughts on the newest — and apparently concluding — entry in the Downton Abbey film cycle, I’d like to explain my relationship with the celebrated TV series (2010-2015) it was based on. I didn’t have one.

I’d never seen a single episode, as I assumed the show was simply another version of that earlier PBS series about contrasts between the classes, Upstairs, Downstairs, which I had tried twice a few decades earlier, and found not to be my cup of chamomile.

So, when, in 2019, I was assigned to review the film adaptation of Downton Abbey, I approached it with fresh eyes, having no idea what the title referred to — it’s a glorious mansion in England’s Yorkshire County; or who the Crawleys were — Robert (Hugh Bonneville) inherited the home, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) was his wealthy American wife; or the fact that head butler Charles Carson (Jim Carter) was a former song-and-dance man.

Though I’m generally open-minded and optimistic when I sit down at a movie, I braced myself for an uninteresting couple of hours. I ended up giving it a very positive review. When, almost three years later, after watching Downton Abbey: A New Era, I wrote, “Will there be another sequel? I’d be happy to see another one.”

Now, having seen it, I’m happy to report that I’m, indeed, happy I did.

Set in 1930 — two years after its predecessor’s story and shortly after the stock market crash that devastated America and wreaked plenty of havoc on the British economy — The Grand Finale finds the Crawleys dealing with their own money issues and with, for an infusion of oomph, an impending nasty divorce for their daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery), who’s married to a cad.

The money problems involve Cora’s New York-based brother Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti) ineptly managing the remains of the family fortune after the Crash, his enlisting the aid of “business advisor” Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola) to recoup the money, and going deeper into debt by bankrolling him to do it. The divorce difficulties center on the idea that “Harrumph! Members of the aristocracy don’t get divorced! Why, that would be a scandal!” (or so certain snooty members of the aristocracy believe).

But this isn’t a doom-and-gloom movie. As in previous entries, there’s plenty of lightness. For example, Daisy (Sophie McShera), the shy assistant cook at Downton Abbey, is asked to help out with the upcoming Yorkshire County Show. This absolutely tickles her! And Guy Dexter (Dominic West), the London stage actor — who figured prominently in A New Era — is coming to visit his friends at Downton, and is bringing Noel Coward (Arty Froushan) with him, thrilling the starstruck residents — both upstairs and downstairs — of the manor. (Note: Froushan sings and plays a dandy rendition of Coward’s “Poor Little Rich Girl.”)

One factor that has kept this franchise so popular is the writing of Julian Fellowes, who scripted every episode of the TV series as well as the three films. He created these characters, knows them intimately, and is gifted with a knack for spinning several distinct and intriguing storylines, then neatly tying them together. Two other pluses: Across-the-board top-notch acting (my vote goes to Alessandro Nivola’s blend of charm and smarm as Gus Sambrook) and the triple-threat visual combo of elegant wardrobes, refined interiors, and exquisite landscaping.

This is a classy and entertaining multileveled melodrama that features excellent production values and a script with a light touch. It’s a near-perfect conclusion to the trilogy. Could there be another one? Sure, but I hope there isn’t. This way, the series is guaranteed to go out on top.

Ed Symkus is a Boston native and Emerson College graduate. He went to Woodstock, has interviewed Hugh Grant, Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, and Michelle Dockery, and has visited the Outer Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands, Anglesey, Mykonos, Nantucket, the Azores, Catalina, Kangaroo Island, Capri, and the Isle of Wight with his wife Lisa.