Good concept, poorly executed.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a wonderfully beautiful movie. I cannot praise it enough. If you love Fassbender,even more so. Don't? Watch it anyway. He knocks it out of the park in this. It's a heartwarming film, and it will give you a serious case of the feels no doubt. But I would recommend highly to watch it,especially with a family.What's most wonderful about it is definitely the bond Fassy and the bears in this movie have, but I can't say anymore for fear of spoilers. Bottomline is: I would watch it over and over again, so I think you should give it at least one watch.

A heart warming family story. We are a family of animal lovers and find this film very touching and worthy of studying the lives and habitats of the Canadian black bear. Very gentle and lovely ; the film is well produced and the casting is excellent. We bought a copy of this wonderful film in DVD form and guess it will be viewed by all our family members and many friends over the years to come. It certainly would make a very nice gift for birthdays and/or Christmas.The countryside is green and cool and very relaxing to look at and the locations well sought out. Congratulations to all involved in the making.

My children were very much entertained by this movie. Historical and semi-factual movies are not really their thing at ALL. It was nice to get them to discuss WWI, bears, relationships, zoo history.. you name it. The bear was really charming. I've never been a huge Pooh fan, but I am a bear fan. I love bear movies. This made me set aside a little love in my heart for Winnie the Pooh. It did bring some tears to my eyes when the bear is in the hospital visiting...I think it's better than average as kids' animal movies go. I don't think my husband would want to watch it again, however. I personally think this movie is rated a little high on this site. Perhaps it doesn't have enough votes yet to get a good measurement. It's a good movie, but by no means is it high cinema. It's a made for TV movie, for sure.

Here's a quote from the CBC website along with my personal comments at the very end:"It is August 1914 and World War I has just begun.Lieutenant Harry Colebourn (Michael Fassbender), a veterinarian with the 34th Fort Garry Horse Division, is traveling by train with other soldiers when he buys a bear cub at a rest stop. He names her Winnie, after his home town of Winnipeg and, in spite of all common sense warnings from his fellow soldiers, takes her with him to the camp in Valcartier, Quebec where the Canadian expeditionary force is gathering.Winnie is a breath of fresh air for the young soldiers faced with the prospect of war, and she travels with them all the way to Salisbury Plain in England.When Harry's regiment is sent to fight in France, the young vet knows Winnie cannot go. He finds a home for her at the London Zoo, promising to return as soon as the war is over and take her back to Canada.While Harry and his friends fight in France, Winnie becomes the star attraction at the zoo. For the children of London, living in the shadow of a frightening war, she becomes a symbol of friendship and hope."What a good way to spend 2 hours. The acting was great, well directed, the sets were appropriate and I did get choked up! (This doesn't happen often, except in Zombie movies).However, there were some VERY annoying slow-motion shots that looked terrible. Lots of flickering during the slow-motion scenes and bad timing. It should have been omitted.Final verdict...A very entertaining and educational story about a beloved bear for the whole family.