SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN is a throw-back to the bonkers-concepts Ealing films of the 1950s, with its story of a British government sponsored attempt to introduce fishing to the Yemen (not an obvious or easy choice). The pitch is that HMG wants some good Middle Eastern news for once - cue clichéd Western bleat about how we accidentally bombed some foreigners - so they get a hot civil servant, who doesn't seem to do any actual work, to team up with the cranky Scottish fishing expert - a typically bland Ewan McGregor - in order to make it work. Fair credit to the writer for turning a novel largely comprised of clippings from emails, diaries and letters into a comprehensible story but the problem is that it's kinda dull. The romance is predictable and passionless, the commentary on current affairs non-existent and the message is of the nice-but-naive lets-all-get-along sort. None of this is helped by rather flat direction. It's nice and undemanding in a Sunday teatime sort of way but feels like a missed chance for something funnier, more charming or incisive.
Review of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
