Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is one of those little movies that could. And it seems at first that Salmon Fishing will be an updated quirky British comedy-satire in the vein of a good Ealing style British comedy, specifically Alec Guinness’ The Man in the White Suit. The role of the eccentric inventor is sort of recalled by Ewan McGregor’s character, Dr. Alfred Jones. Jones is a fish expert who works for the British fishery department. He’s a nerdish fellow who is an expert in all things fish-related and has on the side invented a popular fishing lure he named the ‘Willy Jones’.


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Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) is an extremely wealthy member of Yemen royalty who loves to fish for salmon and has decided that he will spend tens of millions of dollars to irrigate part of his mostly desert homeland so that he can introduce Salmon fishing. He has good relations with the British government and so they humor him by assigning Dr. Alfred Jones to do a feasibility study. Naturally Jones thinks the idea is utterly ridiculous. But, the British prime minister’s assistant, Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) is being pressured to find an upbeat story to counter negative stories about Arab/British relations to the media. She stumbles upon the story of the Sheikh who wants to bring water and Salmon Fishing to his homeland.

Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) is a young financial advisor who has become part of the Sheik Muhammed’s team who is working on the details of the project. Keeping the Sheikh as happy as possible is her priority number one. And so she meets with Alfred Jones to make sure he takes his task seriously and does everything he can to try and make Muhammed’s seemingly impossible dream become a reality. When the task becomes a priority for the Prime Minister, Jones with Harriet Chetwode-Talbot go off to meet the Sheikh who is a charming, charismatic man who is capable of spending what it takes to make his dream into a reality.


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However, besides the nearly impossible and very expensive task of trying to create conditions where Salmon might live and spawn and create new generations of Salmon there are several problems. The poor citizens of Yemen do not believe the Sheik should spend his money on his hobby project and there is growing unrest which leads to an assassination attempt. The British government has run into serious problems as well. It seems there are a very large number of serious fishing hobbyists and ecologist types who don’t think it is a good idea to try and capture 100,000 British Salmon and attempt to transport them to Yemen. They will deplete the British supply, potential affect the British eco-system AND most likely die in the attempt to get them to Yemen.

There is a romance brewing as well. An unlikely one—but more likely than say making it possible to have Salmon in the Yemen, between Dr. Jones and Ms. Chetwode-Talbot. Jones is married and Harriet has a serious relationship to a soldier (Tom Mison) who has left to fight in Afghanistan. They are attracted to each other but certainly do not act on it. However even the Sheikh feels there is something in the air between them and makes a comment about it which he then humbly apologize for (‘sticking my feet in it..).


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The tone set by director Lasse Halstrom (Chocolat) is one of slightly off-beat heartwarming romance. The little quirky touches and unique premise don’t develop into a full blown madcap comedy like it might have if something like Alec Guinness’ The Man in the White Suit were truly its model. The eccentricities of the characters remain sweet and whimsical. The Sheikh is not just a spoiled rich guy with an eccentric idea, but he has a bigger vision. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy backs away from anything that might be critical or even satiric of Arab/British relations. The comedy stays in the comfortable realm of look how slow and stodgy British bureaucracy is and how silly and clueless these over-mannered British folks are. I’m glad we avoided strained and silly slapstick, but the missed opportunities for witty satire disappoint.

Kristin Scott Thomas as the very efficient, aggressive assistant to the prime minister easily steals the movie with her hyper-energetic performance that snaps you instantly wide awake when she makes her appearances on screen. She’s a great counterpoint to the rather slow pace the film settles into. The sappy score by Dario Marianelli lulls us into the sweet rom-com mood even though the movie only becomes fully committed to being a traditional rom-com in its last third.


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Salmon Fishing in Yemen is one of those movies that could. It could have been better, but it’s a pleasant film whose interesting premise and first 45 minutes unfortunately are the best part. It doesn’t get terrible it just plays out in an almost entirely predictable manner. Its quirkiness sort of stops and dissolves just past the hour mark easing into standard rom-com predictability. Excellent acting from the leads keep it on the recommended list.



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