Souvenir of Canada

Souvenir of Canada is an offbeat, irreverent documentary revolving around the creation of author Douglas Coupland’s Canada House, an art exhibit stocked with a variety of distinctly Canadian items (anyone remember the Ookpik?). Based on his book of the same name, the film also documents some of the more notable events in Canada’s history over the last thirty or so years (including the revelation that, in the early ’70s, the Canadian government attempted to replace the greeting “hello” with its Inuit counterpart, “chimo”). Director Robin Neinstein initially employs a quirky, poppy aesthetic that appropriately reflects Coupland’s off-kilter world view, though the movie does morph into something far more sedate and reflective as it progresses (particularly as Coupland divulges certain facts about his childhood, and his relationship with his father). And while there’s no doubt that Canadians will get more out of the film than non-Canadians (Toronto is referred to as “Tranna” in big bold letters), the movie is entertaining enough and funny enough to hold the interest of virtually anyone (ie Coupland refers to those old 35mm educational films as “Soviet-style torture”).

*** out of ****