1. zunzu

   8

   Great story, followed by a very heart warming role of Euan Mcgregor which quickly connects with the audience. The story is original and does not seem to meet the conventional characteristics of a romantic comedy but that said does provide a good amount of laughter with its british humour. All in all a movie worth watching on Sunday afternoon.… Expand

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2. txrangersfan72

   8

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is, on the surface, the story of bringing a visionary idea of a rich sheik, an avid salmon fisherman, to life via Investment Consultant, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, played by Emily Blunt. That idea is to replicate the cold Northern European fishing environment in the dammed, desert conditions in the Yemen. While initially brushed off as lunacy by British proper, the opportunistic Kristin Scott-Thomas, the Prime Minister's Press Secretary Patricia Maxwell, uses the Anglo-Yemeni venture as a way to "wag the dog" in order to keep the British public away from the reality of the Afghan War. Enter Ewan McGregor's Dr. Alfred Jones, a British Fisheries expert whose natural tendency to maintain current thinking and ignore such insane ideas, but is forced to adhere to the Prime Minister's directive to make this project happen for PR's sake. The fast pace of the film keeps the British tone and humor very interesting and entertaining for the first half until all involved came to the realization that the project was worth pursuing. The second half of the film was a victim of its own setup as the story rides its elementarily presented symbolism as an almost-forced chemistry between Dr. Jones and Harriet blossoms into love for the sake of supporting the theme of the story. Dr. Jones (even his name is generic) is a status quo man with the comfortable life, generic marriage, boring sex life, cloudy communication, yet is working toward a good pension and a drama-free existence, reflected symbolically in the Koi pond in his back yard. Fat and happy fish content to live in their small pond never needing adventure or challenges as they have their comfortable owners to feed them generic white bread every day. Meanwhile, the challenge of the sheik's vision is equally reflected in the behavior of the very salmon he wants to bring to the Yemen. Challenging, full of hard work, demanding, seemingly impossible at times and, if successful, immensely rewarding. For the second half of the film, the viewer watches Dr. Jones fight his own instincts to be Koi-like, choosing to resign from his comfortable British job, fall in love with Harriet and discover his passion for making this visionary idea happen. His transformation mirrors the very project he leads, meant to impart that to achieve what brings us passion takes stepping out of our comfort zone, perhaps even doing and being more than we had ever been. Not everyone will understand, some may criticize, try to bring you down, etc., but passions, loves of such heights may not be understood by the everyday "Koi" in the world as they are content to do the safe things, the easy things, devoid of risk taking for their own passions and loves. In the end, Dr. Jones and Harriet choose to keep pursuing the road less traveled as their rewards are bringing the sheik's vision to life while following their hearts with each other. While the romantic chemistry seemed quick and, at times, a little unnatural, the story pointed to a somewhat depressing truth, even if the end was a happy one. The reality is, some people simply don't take chances, don't follow their hearts and choose the comfortable road in order to avoid the potential difficulties pursuing their loves. I couldn't help but personally relate to the film in this respect as I try every day to follow my heart, my dreams and take chances as often as possible. While not always successful, and as much hurt or pain those failures may cause me, I feel stronger in the end knowing my love, my heart and my passion were worth more than the risks. Sadly, I know those who do the opposite, choose the safe route and never pursue their hearts. As the sheik reiterated throughout Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, the strength and confidence in such seemingly impossible pursuits is our never-ending faith that they are worth it and will happen.… Expand

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3. CitizenCharlie

   4

   An Arab sheikh with more money than sense wants to import the sport and/or lifestyle of salmon fishing from cold and rainy Scotland to the barren desert of Yemen. In the meantime, the British government is floundering from scandal to scandal and greedily seizes upon the idea of a cultural rapprochement between the West and the Arab world through this fishing enterprise; it is even better that the sheik is willing to foot the entire bill. The messy details will be filled in by the Fisheries Department representative Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) and an investment rep for the sheikh, Ms. Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt). Naturally, Dr. Jones is incredulous that anyone would think it feasible to move 10,000 salmon from Scotland to Yemen and considers his assignment a fool’s errand. Harriet’s apparent upper class business school education prepared her not to stop and question these silly survivability issues. Oh, and out of nowhere see seems to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese. Two characters being (in)conveniently thrust together like this is a classic setup for the romantic comedy genre. You expect to them to start out at odds, grow fond of each other, overcome some last second conflict, and then float away together with their aquatic metaphors. Well, the joke is on the audience and the culprits are the marketing execs. The preview for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen shows it as a joke a minute and lightly conceived romantic comedy; however, there is barely any noticeable comedy and every scene left out of the preview leans more toward the dramatic. There is an Afghanistan side plot, an unhappy marriage, tribal terrorism, and emotional depression. The character of Dr. Jones is plainly painted as obstinate in the beginning both towards the project and to Harriet because his character arc is required to end up softer and more compassionate. In reality, even if the good Dr. considered the salmon project lunacy, he would not be so overtly rude to Harriet. The plan’s financier, Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) is an obscenely rich man from Yemen prone to waxing philosophic about salmon. That kind of money can only come from oil wealth, but Yemen has no oil reserves. The plot never explains the source of the Sheikh’s money, not because it is not consequential to the plot, but because it cannot. The screenplay could never find an Earthly explanation of why a Yemeni sheikh could haphazardly plop down 50 million pounds on a salmon project. The writer, Simon Beaufoy, most recently adapted 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire into scripts and even he chose to leave that tiny detail out of the script. What comedy there is in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen comes from the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Patricia Maxwell (Kristen Scott Thomas). She is very good at what she does, knows the angle of the story she wants planted in the papers before the event occurs, and moves very quickly to make things happen. Kristen Scott Thomas hasn’t played a character this snarky since Four Weddings and a Funeral. Unfortunately, Patricia vanishes a quarter ways through the film and when she reappears towards the end, the plot has unnecessarily shifted her from comedic to more bureaucratic. The acting in this film is more than capable, especially from McGregor since he is able to talk in his native Scottish dialect. Sadly, the screenplay is a mess and the tone created by director Lasse Hallstrom resembles nothing from the misleading preview and is much darker than the blindsided audience will be prepared for. Feel free to skip Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.… Expand

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