It’s date night! OK, at 4:30 PM, how about date afternoon? And with the movie being Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, maybe it is more like dated night?  It is also hot here in the Lou this weekend. It was so hot… How hot was it? It was so hot that I easily talked Anne into driving the half mile to the theater instead of walking. We got there on time, but where’s the movie? It was five of five before they rolled it. We sat through twenty-five minutes of previews and ads for something other than a movie. The Esquire put us in their main auditorium, but it was only about 10% full. Plus, what audience they did have were all old people, like us. The theater did have one of their main summertime draws, air-conditioning, in abundance. The Esquire was so cold that Anne huddled close to me, at least as close as she could get. The place’s updated seating is of the cushioned recliner style, where each lounge chair takes up what use to be three regular seats. The armrests were so wide that we could barely hold hands. Still, we had arrived. We had gone to the movies together for the first time in years.

So, how was the movie? It was good. Anne liked it too. After six seasons and three movies, it felt comfortable. Like an old shoe. Like its ancestor, Gosford Park, it still featured the same upstairs-downstairs class dynamic of old. Speaking of old, the cast has aged, Dame Maggie right out of the picture, almost. The movie is set in the summer of 1930, and the landed gentry are still wrestling with the aftershocks of the Great Depression, but this movie is really all about the future. Lady Mary ascends to her title, after first being cast aside as a divorcee. Noël Coward saves the day. That’s star power. It is a grand show, but as to whether this will be the final finale, only box office will tell.