Review #1

Salmon Fishing in Yemen

Released: 2011

Director: Lasse Hallström

Starring: Emily Blunt & Ewan McGregor  

Grade: C

While watching Salmon Fishing in Yemen, it’s hard not to think about the films that might have been: a probing piece about the difficulties of bridging the cultural gap between East and West, a satirical criticism of the highly stage-managed political realm, or even just a simple romantic drama about two people torn between obligation and the spark of something new. Rather than being greater than the sum of its parts, Salmon Fishing winds up being a confused, uneven film that never really finds a tone or voice.

I went in to this film with high hopes. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are two phenomenal actors who often manage to rise above weaker material. Unfortunately, the two stars lack even a flicker of chemistry and the romance that is supposed to ground the film falls flat. To be fair, however, I’m not quite sure the film sets out to be a romantic romp. The plot is messy and unfocused, but since McGregor (as Dr. Alfred “Fred” Jones) and Blunt (as Harriet Chetwode-Talbot) seem to have the most screen time, one can only assume their growing friendship is supposed to be the heart of the film. Harriet’s employer, a rich Yemen sheik (Amr Waked), decides to import salmon fishing, one of his favorite Western hobbies, to his Middle Eastern homeland. Fred, a salmon expert in the fisheries branch of the government, is brought on as a consultant for the project. Harriet is beautiful, confident, and sardonic. Harry is quiet, awkward, and socially challenged. Their romance is complicated by the fact that Fred is married and Harriet’s recently-acquired soldier boyfriend goes MIA in combat.

While the struggle to bring salmon fishing to a desert climate would presumably be enough to dominate a film, Salmon Fishing insists on tossing in a handful of tangentially related storylines as well. The Prime Minister’s press secretary Patricia Maxwell (Kristen Scott Thomas) initially puts pressure on the project as a goodwill-fluff-piece designed to counteract bad news out of the Middle East. She later leaves the project, only to return when Harriet’s presumably dead boyfriend winds up miraculously alive and she smells another photo op. This political storyline is probably the film’s most bizarre. It adds a quirky, mocking tone which clashes with the film’s otherwise optimistic, character-based form of storytelling. It also leads to a bizarre (but rather funny) scene in which Patricia simultaneously sends her children off to school while arguing on the phone about the Prime Minister’s image. It’s an enjoyable scene, but it only vaguely relates to the rest of the film and serves to further the disjointed storytelling Salmon Fishing seems to think is charming.

The other plotline that seems to be pulled from an entirely different film involves a group of local militants hell-bent on assassinating the sheik and sabotaging the fishing project. While it’s meant to show the difficulties of bringing together Western and Eastern culture (the fishing project feels imposed from an arrogant outside power and is thus distrusted by locals) it winds up feeling like a stereotypical use of the Middle-Eastern-terrorist archetype designed to add some tension to the film’s third act. The return of Harriet’s boyfriend and the who-will-she-pick dance that ensues also feels largely shoehorned in.

The film ventures into dark territory- terrorism, disintegrating marriages, casualties of war, but insists on ending with hokey schlock. The fish miraculously survive the destruction of their dam, Harriet chooses to stay with Fred and continue the project, and Patricia and the PM make fun of the foreign secretary over iChat. The disparate tones give Salmon Fishing a schizophrenic quality that ultimately drains the film of heart and turns what could have been a quiet character study into an uneven muddle.

Reality factor: Props for building Fred and Harriet’s relationship slowly and somewhat awkwardly. Their friendship feels grounded in reality (so long as you ignore the groan-inducing scene in which Fred saves the sheik’s life using a fishing line). [4 out of 5]

Eye-candy factor: Tom Mison (as Harriet’s boyfriend Robert) is easy on the eyes, but is hardly in the film long enough to make much of an impression. Ewan McGregor’s normal charm is hidden behind a dowdy exterior. [2 out of 5]

Aww factor: Fred’s timid awkwardness is surprisingly touching, as is the scene where he brings Harriet a homemade sandwich because he’s worried she has forgotten to eat in her time of crisis. Overall though, the central romance is more stilted than aww-inducing. [3 out of 5]