Being Canadian

I never ever took the time to write a review on a movie, but this movie, I could not help myself. This movie is a documentary exclusively thinking about English Canada. The author rode through Quebec asking about maple syrup and an underage little girl presenting a whole culture. We clearly see how English Canada does NOT understand Quebec. If the author would have been serious about presenting Canada, he should have thought about the following items presenting the second most important culture of the country: Humour: Just for Laughs Festival created by Gilbert Rozon, Andre Phillipe Gagnon (which went on the Tonight Show in the 80s). Jean- René Dufort, Infoman. Sports: Curling? Seriously: Basketball was invented in Montreal at McGill College. Baseball, we had Jackie Robinson. Beat that Toronto. By the way, we have the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada, one of the biggest events on planet earth every year. Hockey? What about the Montreal Canadien, the team that won the Stanley Cup most often in history, and how this team defined our emancipation as a people thanks to Maurice Richard? Music: What about Celine Dion, Arcade Fire, Murray Head? Celebrities: By the way, William Shatner is from Montreal. You could have asked him his thought when you talked about Quebec. Television: What about La Petite Vie, Biggest ratings ever in Quebec. Movies: Patrick Huard with Colm Feore (Bon Cop Bad Cop) = Biggest movie box office EVER in Canada. EVER, as in this movie producer can never expect to get to the level of what a Quebec movie did in ratings in all of Canada. This movie confirms the Canadian solitudes of French Canadian versus English Canadian. Not even talking about the fact that independence has been in the thoughts of more than 35% of the people for the last 40 years is quite insulting to saying that this is a documentary about Being Canadian. Also, bypassing any Native Amerindian reserve is also an insult to the whole of Canada. Definitely a movie thought to make Stephen Harper and political conservatives happy, with Western Canada thought process, not taking in consideration the duality and coexistence of two separate and truly distinctive societies living together. Don't expect to see the full picture of Canada thanks to this movie.

This is a charming documentary from Robert Cohen, a Canadian who writes and produces in Hollywood. The film consists of many, many, many interviews with mostly Canadians as well as footage of Cohen taking a roadtrip across the nation. It explores many topics including what it is to be 'Canadian nice', comedy, the cold, the country's love-hate relationship with the USA and why Canada doesn't suck. All in all, the film works well because Cohen was a nice host and there were so many famous Canadians who took part in the film. A gentle sense of humor and very enjoyable.

All this being said, I was shocked that the film had no captions of any sort. My deaf daughter could not watch the film but French- Canadians who do not speak English also cannot enjoy the movie--a very, very strange omission considering the subject matter!!

Comedy writer Robert Cohen, born in Calgary, Alberta directs this documentary which tries to delve into the Canadian psyche in various ways, including Cohen's perceptions of its love-hate relationship with the United States and the Canadian inferiority complex and apparent self-deprecation.

Cohen will try and put a humorous spin on those issues, as well as a number of others, as he travels by minivan across Canada, beginning in Nova Scotia and ending in Vancouver, British Columbia for Canada Day, some 9 days later. Along the way they'll be some interviews with various citizens in different milieus, as well as the perspectives of many famous Canadians, many of whom are household names.

As Cohen will come to learn, his original premise may have been rather faulty, and I can say that as an American, who's traveled to Canada a number of times, I've admired the Canadian lifestyle, and could easily see myself living there if circumstances warranted.

Note: there were no subtitles on my DVD copy and the sound quality could have been better.

Overall, I thought this film can be humorous and filled with interesting factoids about Canada.However, it can become repetitious, at times, perhaps with trying too hard to prove the premises of the filmmaker.

The premise: Robert Cohen sets out to learn more about his country of Canada and to show the world a bit about who we are by filming as he travels from one coast to the other on a whirlwind tour.

A fine idea if you actually took the time to go to every province and territory! He skips PEI, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the ENTIRE NORTH, and for the provinces he does visit, I didn't learn a thing. I'm a proud Canadian and yes I too am irritated and dismayed by those moments we have all had with (ignorant) people from other continents who seem to think Canada looks like the area by the wall in Game of Thrones or like the Americans (inexcusably ignorant since they're our neighbours!) who ask us stupid stuff like the woman in the laundromat I met just across the US/Canada border on a camping trip once who found out I was from Canada and asked me "Do you hunt?" Me: "No, definitely not." Her looking shocked/confused: "Well how do you get your meat???" Me, resisting an eye roll:"If I ate meat, I would just go to Safeway or somewhere." Her, now really surprised, "Wow, y'all have supermarkets up there!" Me: ..... Polite smile.... "Yeah, but just 2."

Of course in touristy shops there are the usual culprits: beavers, moose, totem poles, Mounties, maple syrup & plaid fleece, but surely a movie that's supposed to show a wider view of our multicultural country that's more "mosaic" than "melting pot" should work a little harder not to reinforce some of the stereotypes he's supposed to dispel (and yes, it could be done through comedy!) ZERO mention of the First Nations! NOTHING about our urban culture or musicians, artists, athletes, scientists, dancers (Royal Wpg. Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, or Spandy Andy :D) And our history didn't start with Confederation.

Okay, on occasion, there's snow in May in some parts of the country but not in Ottawa in June!

True, he's right that we do seem to have a lot of comedians and it was great to see some of them (mostly why I kept watching until the end) and I did like the theories presented about why Canadian humour is unique and what makes us funny.

Another part when he talks about what is typical Canadian food he seems to disbelieve that the answer truly is a wonderful mixture of many flavours. Poutine is the pat answer for what's a typical dish since you now find it almost anywhere in Canada in some form (Merci, Quebec!) but even in smaller cities you can often find amazing curries, weird and wonderful fusions of several types of cuisine, or great hearty home-cooked meals served in humble locations that feature foods that rival the quality from the country they originated from. We Canadians like our food!

Ok, to be fair there are a couple of funny moments, some of the comments were a bit deeper (Geddy Lee & Kim Campbell) and I wanted to like this movie, I wanted to laugh (maybe self-deprecatingly!) but I was more irritated and indignant afterwards just like some of the other reviewers from Canada.

To sum it up if someone was to determine what ice cream flavour represents Canada based upon this film they would likely choose vanilla and that is probably what they'd have said BEFORE watching it too.

I began this movie with high hopes. I mean, with all of those comedians, how could it miss, right? Although it was sometimes moderately funny in a very predictable manner, it really fell short of tapping into what it truly means to be Canadian and what makes Canada so special. I would say that if you are looking for a movie chock full of antiquated stereotypes told from people who do not live in Canada or have not lived in Canada for years, this is the movie for you. Put another way, if the year was 1982, this movie would be perfect. Aside from a few token minorities, this movie is as white as it gets and totally NOT what being Canadian is all about. Where was the depiction of our awesome multicultural, diverse nation? So disappointing.