Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

This is an easy to watch, lazy Saturday movie. Beautiful people, an unconventional story line and mesmerising landscapes, plus 50 billion pounds to boot – it can’t really go wrong.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen a feel-good film, but initially, all its relationships are in trouble – whether it’s the married and the not-so-married, the bureaucrat and his minions, the sheikh and his countrymen, and even the salmon and the Yemeni environment!

Ewan McGregor is the passionate scientist Alfred Jones and does ample justice to the role. It’s a character you learn to love slowly, because at first Jones comes across as delightfully witty but rather predictable. With time he learns to give as good as he gets and fight for the things he loves.

It is heartening to see the way he opens up to not just the possibilities of the project, but to the possibilities of life.
    
To me, Emily Blunt always comes across as approachable and relatable, and there’s a sense of honesty and rawness in her acting that I admire. It’s shown to great effect here too, as the character of Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (a bit of a mouthful), the corporate real estate wrangler/financier keen to get Jones involved in the project. A thick ‘I can take on anything’ attitude hides a rather vulnerable side to Ms Chetwode-Talbot, and this unravels beautifully.

Choices to make...

The nonchalant attitude with which she responds to all Jones’ perceived reasoning and challenges against the project is to be admired. After all, if someone can arrange the dam engineers that build the Three Gorges Dam in China to visit an obscure scientist in a government department, wouldn’t you respect that person too?

Egyptian actor Amr Waked is the Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed that is the glue to the whole story. His desire to introduce something new to Yemen (fly-fishing in the desert) and uplift his community through it is admirable. Of course, if he sailed through this without issues that would make for a dull ending. But the question is whether it’s worth putting lives in mortal danger?

I love the clothes he wears throughout the movie – traditional, colourful and very elegant. As a shiekh it’s possibly accepted, but it certainly adds a sense of cultural enigma to the character.

The art of fly-fishing 

The dialogue is sharp and crisp, especially when it comes to Kristin Scott Thomas’ acid-tongued press secretary, who just cuts right through to the point in her unending quest to find cheery PR stories. The political manoeuvring (sometimes bordering on blackmail) is predictable – but that’s life.

Why is she interested? The (never visible) Prime Minister needs a good PR story from the Middle East and the salmon fishing story ticks all the boxes.

The film touches on faith and miracles – but that stems more from belief in a cause and courage to see it through. That’s where the film shines, and while the laughs are great, the film leaves you feeling quite positive about things in general.

And just to clear things up, no, there is no salmon fishing industry in the Yemen, according to the Yemen Tourist Board, which was swamped with calls about it following the film’s release. Now, that IS a bit hilarious!

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is directed by Lasse Hallström (famed for directing many of ABBA’s music videos and the 1999 film The Cider House Rules) and is based on the novel of the same name by British writer Paul Torday.

Here’s the preview:

Images © bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/salmon_fishing_in_the_yemen/gallery