I was searching for a movie or TV series that truly demonstrated what being Canadian

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!!

"Being Canadian" is an okayish documentary but that is how far my praise goes. It is just okayish. Mildly entertaining, at times, and certainly not funny in the slightest. Now before I start I am English so I won't be approaching this from a Canadian perspective as I am an outsider. I do love visiting Canada though which is the main reason I watched this.

I have visited the great white north and it is a great place to go look around. Saying that, this documentary does miss a few provinces on its trip around Canada and it seems stupid to me that it misses the Yukon Territory, which is a stunning wilderness, and Prince Edward Island which is a gorgeous place. The journey they take in this film is so rushed that it doesn't feel complete and I can't help but think if they allowed more time to explore properly they would have made a better film.

The general question Robert Cohen asks is "what is it that makes Canada and its citizens great?" This is a pretty ambiguous question and one that is answered very poorly by Cohen. He comes to a pretty weak conclusion and to get there just simply mentions clichés about Canada and poses them to famous Canadians.

While it is quant to go "holy sh*t Mike Myers is Canadian!!" the amusement wears off very quickly and you start to think what the actual point of him being there is. Most of the famous Canadians don't really shed any light on national history, they just cop out going for the boring questions that people think of to ask a Canadian. Cohen does ask the help of some Canadian history experts but they have about 3 minutes of screen time….that's it!

I would have preferred a bit more about Canadian history, as an outsider looking in. The only thing that is really said is that "it is not taught in American schools" which is a bit of a stupid thing to say really. In English schools we aren't taught about Scottish history or Irish history. Just because two countries are attached doesn't give an obligation to teach each other's history.

The comedy in this falls so flat at times that it is actually destroying the tone of the documentary. I do understand that some documentaries can be funny as well as educational but in this film it just fails so hard it makes the people look dumb when they say something profound about Canada. For instance there is this stupid bit where Cohen is interviewing Dave Foley in bed with both of them half naked FOR NO REASON!??! It is such a crap joke and has no real context in anything.

I wish they had done better with this film as there are some things that were interesting and some interesting facts were presented in a fun way which was very entertaining. I did like the way it shouts Canada's achievements and it did, in places, make me think of the important contributions Canada has made to the world.

However most of the documentary was taken up with rehashing Canadian clichés and the input from all of the stars left me a bit underwhelmed. This documentary did not feel like a labour of love done by people who really loved the subject they were talking about. It is just a star studded mess. Sorry EH!