It's a strange experience to walk into a cinema and ask for a ticket to see Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. The title is so eccentric and unorthodox that it sounds vaguely ridiculous when said out loud. Salmon? Fishing? Yemen?!? First impressions hardly conjure up the greatest of expectations. In fairness to director Lasse Hallström, he has fashioned a pretty successful career for himself out of the eccentric and the unorthodox (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, Chocolat and The Cider House Rules to name but a few)... and this adaptation of Paul Torday's novel proves to be another likably offbeat offering from the Swedish film-maker.
Consultancy agent Harriet Chetwoode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) works for a firm that represents an incredibly wealthy Arab sheik. Whenever the sheik (Amr Waked) is away from his homeland, his favourite place in the world is a lavish estate he has purchased in the Scottish Highlands, where he spends hour after hour fishing for salmon. The sheik becomes so obsessed with salmon fishing that he dreams bringing the sport to his home country of the Yemen, even though the idea seems to go against all rational sense. He charges Harriet with finding the right people to bring his impossible dream to reality. Enter humourless fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), whose first reaction to the proposal is to dismiss it. Only later, after meeting Harriet and the sheik in person, does he realise how deadly serious they are. And when the Prime Minister's personal spin doctor Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott-Thomas) gets in on the act - using the project to promote good Anglo-Arab relations following a series of damaging news stories – Jones suddenly finds himself swept along by events that are too big and too fast for him to control. Out in the Yemen at the site of the project, Jones and Harriet find their very different lives unexpectedly converging. Him battling to salvage a failing marriage, her longing for news of her soldier boyfriend, missing-presumed-dead in Afghanistan; united in their desire to complete an enterprise that started out as one man's mad folly. Could it be that love is blossoming under the Arabian sun in this unlikely corner of the Yemen?
Too many romantic comedies are happy to serve up the standard ingredients, such as rampant clichés, contrived plotting, annoying characters, a predictable outcome and dismal dialogue. Thankfully, Hallström manages to successfully avoid most of these things in Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, helped in no small part by Simon Beaufoy's smart adapted screenplay. The characters come across much more believable than the types we usually find in this sort of film. McGregor's fisheries boffin, with his rather funny semi-autistic tendencies, is a wonderfully written character, giving the actor his quirkiest roles in years. Blunt's consultant is an absolute work-horse in the office but very sweet and vulnerable in private, played to perfection by the star after a recent career wobble (her embarrassing efforts in Gulliver's Travels can now, it seems, be forgotten). The film looks gorgeous throughout, offering a nice contrast between the bleakly beautiful Scottish glens and the fabulous desert scenery. Having said that, all these visual pleasantries and enjoyable performances wouldn't count for much if the story itself wasn't well executed... and the real joy of Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is what a refreshingly bright and vibrant film it is. Hallström succumbs to the occasional lapse – a splash of sentimentality here, a bit of toothless political satire there – but overall Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is an assured piece of work.
Consultancy agent Harriet Chetwoode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) works for a firm that represents an incredibly wealthy Arab sheik. Whenever the sheik (Amr Waked) is away from his homeland, his favourite place in the world is a lavish estate he has purchased in the Scottish Highlands, where he spends hour after hour fishing for salmon. The sheik becomes so obsessed with salmon fishing that he dreams bringing the sport to his home country of the Yemen, even though the idea seems to go against all rational sense. He charges Harriet with finding the right people to bring his impossible dream to reality. Enter humourless fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), whose first reaction to the proposal is to dismiss it. Only later, after meeting Harriet and the sheik in person, does he realise how deadly serious they are. And when the Prime Minister's personal spin doctor Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott-Thomas) gets in on the act - using the project to promote good Anglo-Arab relations following a series of damaging news stories – Jones suddenly finds himself swept along by events that are too big and too fast for him to control. Out in the Yemen at the site of the project, Jones and Harriet find their very different lives unexpectedly converging. Him battling to salvage a failing marriage, her longing for news of her soldier boyfriend, missing-presumed-dead in Afghanistan; united in their desire to complete an enterprise that started out as one man's mad folly. Could it be that love is blossoming under the Arabian sun in this unlikely corner of the Yemen?
Too many romantic comedies are happy to serve up the standard ingredients, such as rampant clichés, contrived plotting, annoying characters, a predictable outcome and dismal dialogue. Thankfully, Hallström manages to successfully avoid most of these things in Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, helped in no small part by Simon Beaufoy's smart adapted screenplay. The characters come across much more believable than the types we usually find in this sort of film. McGregor's fisheries boffin, with his rather funny semi-autistic tendencies, is a wonderfully written character, giving the actor his quirkiest roles in years. Blunt's consultant is an absolute work-horse in the office but very sweet and vulnerable in private, played to perfection by the star after a recent career wobble (her embarrassing efforts in Gulliver's Travels can now, it seems, be forgotten). The film looks gorgeous throughout, offering a nice contrast between the bleakly beautiful Scottish glens and the fabulous desert scenery. Having said that, all these visual pleasantries and enjoyable performances wouldn't count for much if the story itself wasn't well executed... and the real joy of Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is what a refreshingly bright and vibrant film it is. Hallström succumbs to the occasional lapse – a splash of sentimentality here, a bit of toothless political satire there – but overall Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is an assured piece of work.