Very best movie i ever watch

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although there was a lot left out of the original book, the storytelling in this TV miniseries was beautiful. I have been loving Eddie Redmayne for a while now, but after this film, I'm hooked! I am in love with him as was Isabelle. :) I loved the actress who played her as well. She reminded me of young Juliette Binoche. I thought it was a passionate and beautifully told story. The cinematography was spectacular and the massive destruction that WWII left was very well depicted here. More films should show how the Wealthy Upper classes acted as the Generals who would order the lower classes to put themselves on the frontlines basically for suicide missions to keep everyone else in good standing, including those who sat around thinking up brilliant ideas to have innocent young soldiers killed.

Earlier reviewers have covered most salient aspects of the movie. As a movie showing the cruelty of a most pointless war (that the UK & Empire should have stayed out of!), I would happily give it a 10, but there is no getting past the disgraceful, caddish behaviour of Stephen who was a guest in a home, where the host was most welcoming and foolishly trusting. The man has no honour. I need not say a word about the whore of a wife. What I do not understand is why the husband did not cripple Stephen for this outrage.I was amused about an earlier critique who seems to believe that oral sex is something new. He needs to visit the erotic temples of Khajurao, India to see the act carved in stone repeatedly.

Let me start by saying we love just about everything on Masterpiece. We also rent a lot of British mysteries, dramas, and especially period pieces from Netflix. Our main complaint is that the male lead in Birdsong is quite possibly the most wooden and boring acting we've ever seen. Just awful. The female lead is also pretty wooden and her performance is even worse than when she appeared in Gossip Girl. I have nothing good to say about this show except the outfits were pretty.We expect quality from Masterpiece and this sure did not measure up! You'd be better off watching repeats of Poirot or Foyle's War.

*****Contains Spoilers***** Since this is currently available online, I spent my Saturday afternoon watching it. Masterpiece Classic has brought America many excellent British series. "Birdsong" was not one. It was slow and sad. I found it hard to believe that the leads were in love since they never had a conversation. A relationship based on physical attraction is LUST, not love. Also, a happy ending never gets old, so why drag us through a gruesome war and not give us one? In fact, by the end I disliked both leads. I never got a chance to like Stephen since he had very little dialogue. The writers couldn't seem to figure out who he was either. His choices were inconsistent with what they tried to tell us about his character. So I started out by feeling pretty ambivalent about him, and by the end I disliked him completely. He also wasn't very bright. I knew immediately why Isabelle left, and he didn't figure it out until Isabel's sister showed him! It's hard to believe he could be that dense. Many of the other soldiers were more interesting characters, but we didn't get to know them very well. Why did so many good men die, but Stephen had nine lives? It became completely unbelievable how many times he should have died but didn't. It seems like he was the ONLY English survivor at the end. My recollection of WWI history is a bit fuzzy, and this only made it worse. I should have given up on this and watched something else, but I kept thinking it would get better. I was wrong. I'm trying to think of something nice to say about this movie. I don't want to be that person who can only talk about the negative aspects. So after racking my brain, I will say that the sets were very real. I believed they were underground. I believed it was dark, dirty and very dangerous. The costumes were very good as far as I could tell. The lack of color overall, contributed to the bleak and hopeless feeling.This movie was poorly written, the story was hard to follow and most of the characters were lack luster and cold. If you like this time period watch "Downton Abbey." If you want to see an excellent British mini- series, watch "Cranford." There are many others, but these are the two that leap to mind for me. Don't waste your time with "Birdsong."