Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Tired of P

  
  Question: Do you feel like you are set on a path to follow or please others, and it goes against your nature to turn around and walk another way? You don't even realize you are stagnant in your own life; but what happens when you meet that one person who helps you change… More
  Question: Do you feel like you are set on a path to follow or please others, and it goes against your nature to turn around and walk another way? You don't even realize you are stagnant in your own life; but what happens when you meet that one person who helps you change direction? Well, they become your savior and in return you become theirs because you help them to join your path - a route that the you two were destined to combine. I was lucky enough to go to a screening for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen the other day as this film is not opening until the first week of March 2012; and I was grateful for the viewing because this movie was just delightful. When film-makers combine romance, drama and comedy it has all the elements to make you feel good, and this movie did just that. Love it when that happens. Actually by the end of the film my cheeks hurt because I realized for nearly the entire film I was smiling. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is just that - a story about a sheik from Yemen, who has a home in Scotland and adores fly fishing so much that he wants to create a place to fish in his native country. A firm that represents the sheik's money is put in charge of getting the seemingly impossible task achieved. Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, played by Emily Blunt, is the person who must persuade a reluctant fisheries expert, played by Ewan McGregor, to help the sheik obtain his vision. A sweet and unusual friendship is sparked between the quiet, reserved (and dare I say nerdy) Scotsman and the go-getter, albeit overly-emotional at times, English woman. I enjoyed watching them together on-screen; two strangers who showed up in each other's lives and end up altering each other's paths in profound ways. I will skip over talking about whom stars in it because you all heard enough about him from me, but I must talk about Kristin Scott Thomas and her part in the film. She plays the press secretary for the Prime Minister of Britain and her character was absolutely hysterical! She was the comedic relief in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and I am not quite sure I have ever seen her play a character like this before now. Usually she plays quiet, sometimes sullen characters but in this film she is full of energy and is a takes-no-bullshit type of gal. Loved it. Wait until you see how she talks to people - even her own children. Emily Blunt was equally as intriguing but still my favorite performance of her's is from The Devil Wears Prada. However, in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen it was a delight to see a normally strong female character show some vulnerability when her supposed path is drastically shifted, and then an unassuming man gently comforts her with just his mere presence. I enjoyed those scenes the most. This movie is based on the book of the same name by Paul Torday and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, a favorite of mine due to his ability to take you into an emotional journey with his slight off-beat vision. (Chocolat, Hachi: A Dog's Tale, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules, etc...) Directed by Lasse Hallström, CBS Films, 2012 Starring: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked, Rachael Stirling, Tom Mison and Kristin Scott Thomas. Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance. My favorite thing: Kristin Scott Thomas AND hearing Ewan McGregor's Scottish accent. My least favorite thing: A little bit predictable especially at the climax of the film. It had all right indie film qualities until that part. Rating: PG-13 Length: 112 minutes Review: 7 out of 10

• Mark H

  
  A fishing obsessed sheik (Amr Waked), his beautiful legal representative (Emily Blunt), a skeptical fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) and an overzealous press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) all collide in this oh-so-precious drama about introducing British salmon to the Wadis of the… More
  A fishing obsessed sheik (Amr Waked), his beautiful legal representative (Emily Blunt), a skeptical fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) and an overzealous press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) all collide in this oh-so-precious drama about introducing British salmon to the Wadis of the Yemen. Trying to care that a billionaire gets his way is pretty difficult. I mean it's not like we're attempting to eradicate hunger or something. It's indulging his dream so he can fish for sport. Ok so they shove in some nonsense concerning the Prime Minister of Yemen wanting to promote improved international relations, which makes absolutely no sense by the way. In the beginning we're treated to the snippy banter between Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt that illustrate how much they can't stand each other. These two couldn't possibly fall in love, right? One look at that movie poster will tell you otherwise. It's exceptionally formulaic. Oh and I don't advise watching the trailer as it effectively manages to boil down the entire narrative to its 2 1/2 minute essence. I will admit this is a strong cast. I like the ensemble a great deal. Kristin Scott Thomas is particularly over-the-top and she gave a little life to the proceedings. If all you desire out of a movie is a gentle comedy of manners with appealing actors, you could do worse. But you could do a lot better too. Local Hero anyone? Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is the kind of film that gives trifling a bad name. The story is just so insignificant. My advice? Throw this fish back in the water. It's not fully developed.

• Josh M

  
  Salmon fishing... is a charming, quirky romantic comedy that succeeds almost entirely due to the charm and chemistry of its couple, Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. The premise is intriguing, but the story is filled with a great many unlikely and overly convenient plot machinations,… More
  Salmon fishing... is a charming, quirky romantic comedy that succeeds almost entirely due to the charm and chemistry of its couple, Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. The premise is intriguing, but the story is filled with a great many unlikely and overly convenient plot machinations, especially as the movie reaches its inevitable, artificial happy ending. That the whimsical and often cheap script works at any level is due to the talents of Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom, who is a strong actor's director and sensitive, especially with delicate and heartfelt material. The poor man has saddled himself with so many studio turkeys in recent years (It's a living, I guess) it's hard to remember his best stuff (My Life As a Dog, Cider House Rules) is really quite special. Vivacious Emily Blunt's (she's some sort of publicist), is retained by a suave, billionaire Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked). Her job is to to enlist the U.K. fishing ministry to help stock a dried out Wadi in Yemen with both a flowing river and Atlantic salmon, so he can fly fish in his home country. The Brits go for it, looking for a good news U.K/Middle East story, (Kristen Scott Thomas is the PM's fixer on this one). They need to recruit repressed Fisheries biologist Ewan McGregor, an anal retentive, repressed Scot mired in a stale marriage. Wackiness and unlikely romance ensues. The obstacles to these two crazy kids coming together are Blunt's budding relationship with a solider who is about to be stationed in a war zone, and McGregor's stale marriage to a pill of a wife. All the secondary characters are one dimensional, especially the usually superb Scott-Thomas's cynical and vulgar political hack. Except for the sheikh, they all seem like they are in another, much broader film. However, the sophisticated London locations, the fly fishing scenes in the Scottish Highlands and the Yemeni desert are nice to look at. The special effects at bringing the salmon into the desert and damming the river are quite effective and fun to watch. However, it's Blunt and McGregor's film. These two are utterly charming, intelligent, human and vulnerable. Both of them are as comfortable in comedies as in heavy dramas, and that's saying a lot about their range of talent. I cared deeply and wanted these two people to get together, and isn't that what you want every Rom Com to pull off? And they don't even kiss once in the whole movie! The film tries to raise some interesting issues (even a kind of Arab Spring theme, and a conservationist issue around the salmon) but does nothing with them. They are just cheap plot devices to bring these two together. The most annoying plot detail is Blunt's relationship with a solider bound for Afghanistan, who may or may not have survived an attack. I won't ruin it for you, but the movie certainly will. In any case, this is well worth a plane ride or a rental on demand, but leave your most stringent critical faculties at the door and enjoy Emily, Ewan and the nice pictures.

• Bathsheba M

  
  And to think I almost missed this one! This is one movie were the trailers were definitely not the best parts of the movie. That's because there was a real subtlety to the story telling and a pace which allowed the heft of the message to be absorbed. The message is brilliant:… More
  And to think I almost missed this one! This is one movie were the trailers were definitely not the best parts of the movie. That's because there was a real subtlety to the story telling and a pace which allowed the heft of the message to be absorbed. The message is brilliant: the authentic you can be subverted by ease and comfort, but it's always there, waiting for a catastrophe, a reason! to release itself. The cinematography was beautiful. The acting was low-key, just what the script called for. The use of text and email--which is everywhere now, because that's how we communicate--was handled with just the right amount of weight and humor, I thought. Kirstin Scott Thomas was over the top wonderful.

• danny d

  
  i struggled with this film a bit. i love the cast, especially blunt, and i thought the story was delightful, but the script was way too heavy and battered with far too many forced elements, especially the exhausting love quadrangle. there was just too much involved to allow the… More
  i struggled with this film a bit. i love the cast, especially blunt, and i thought the story was delightful, but the script was way too heavy and battered with far too many forced elements, especially the exhausting love quadrangle. there was just too much involved to allow the story to develop naturally so things had to be stuffed in, and the film took itself more seriously than the story allowed. a decent watch by forgettable.

• Anatoliy D

  
  3 stars

• J P

  
  Not a bad film, but not necessarily a good one either. The title implies that this is a really boring piece of work, but that actually isn't the case. This movie is a feel good dramedy about two people who work on a project to bring sport fishing into the dry desert of Yemen.… More
  Not a bad film, but not necessarily a good one either. The title implies that this is a really boring piece of work, but that actually isn't the case. This movie is a feel good dramedy about two people who work on a project to bring sport fishing into the dry desert of Yemen. It's more fun than it sounds I swear. Along the way, the two people (McGregor & Blunt) deal with relationship issues, setbacks in the project, etc. It's not a bad movie. I watched a prescreening of this and I wasn't really excited to see this film; I was just excited I would get to see this film before YOU and the general public! That in itself was awesome. I arrived to the prescreening late because I told my friend we needed to be at the theater 20 minutes BEFORE it started so that I could pick up my free passes and see the movie. My friend for some reason thought I said 20 minutes AFTER and we literally had 10 minutes to get to the theater. So of course, when we got there the movie was already underway. I was so pissed. My first EVER prescreening and my dumb friend was too dumb to get there on time. I would've gone without her, but the passes were under my name and she was a guest, so I had to wait for her. BUT ANYWAY....I only missed the first 10 or so minutes of the film. The writing was very good throughout the entire movie. The script was funny, cute and charming. It gave all the characters really good lines. The writing was the best part about the film, I think. The only problem I had was the lack of chemistry between the leads. The movie makes you wonder who Blunt and McGregor will choose: their current boy/girlfriend or each other? I honestly didn't feel like Blunt and McGregor were compatible at all. They didn't have that chemistry between them that made me believe they were meant for each other. The acting was really good, but they just didn't seem right for each other. Actually all of the relationships seemed underdeveloped and lacked that spark that makes the audience believe they really are a couple that loves each other. McGregor & his girlfriend, Mcgregor & Blunt, and Blunt & her boyfriend all lacked chemistry. They didn't even seem like friends let alone lovers. I honestly didn't care about who got together with who. The reality of the relationships just wasn't there. The plot was okay. The whole project about the salmon fishing was kinda unrealistic. It just seemed like a stupid and poorly thought out idea to begin with. The whole project seemed like a waste of time. I still can't get over the title: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Does that title make you want to see the movie? Does it sound at all interesting? It sounds like a boring documentary I'd be forced to watch in high school. The title doesn't do the movie justice. The movie is very funny and enjoyable. I don't know what they were thinking giving the movie such a shitty name. The salmon fishing idea otherwise would've been painfully boring to watch, but this movie miraculously pulls it off....it's just really unrealistic. The part of the movie that completely ruined it for me was the ending. I absolutely HATED it. *SPOILERS to follow* At the end, Blunt finds out her boyfriend in the armed forces had survived the terrorist attack, and was no longer MIA like she had previously been told. Blunt for some reason likes McGregor, but her feelings are conflicted when her boyfriend returns to her. At the very end, Blunt's boyfriend tells her that he only survived because the thought of seeing her again kept him going. He then told her that she doesn't owe him anything (i.e. she can dump him if she wants). After hearing this, Blunt walks away and hugs McGregor and they get together. Blunt's boyfriend just stands in the distance and watches. Then when he realizes she dumped him (she didn't even have the courtesy to tell him to his face it's over), he drives away ALONE. It was terrible. What a bitch. The guy is a war hero and she dumps him? He's been through hell and he's hot and he loves her and she DUMPS him? It was an awful ending. I guess it wasn't that bad though because none of the characters really connected to each other. None of them had any chemistry so it was hard to believe ANY of them had relationships with one another. Like when Blunt finds out her boyfriend is MIA she goes into a depressed state and sulks for weeks...but she only knew the guy for like a few weeks, so how could she be so wrecked? I don't know. I just wish it had worked out for the army guy because he was so cute. I'm not sure I would watch this movie again. It was okay, but I hardly doubt the younger crowd like me would enjoy watching this. The prescreening audience mostly had middle aged people in it. A few teenagers walked out because they didn't like it, and I can understand why. It's interesting, but not interesting at the same time if that makes any sense. It was interesting for me because of the script, but the actual premise was boring and the intended humor wasn't really that funny. I smiled, but didn't laugh...not unless it's the Hangover.

• Eric H

  
  The unlikely pairing of Blunt and McGregor team up to help a Yemeni sheik realise his dream of bringing salmon fishing to his land. Were I one for conspiracy theories I would question the coincidence of this being released the same weekend as the controversial Bahrain grand prix,… More
  The unlikely pairing of Blunt and McGregor team up to help a Yemeni sheik realise his dream of bringing salmon fishing to his land. Were I one for conspiracy theories I would question the coincidence of this being released the same weekend as the controversial Bahrain grand prix, given that this is essentially a propaganda piece for every egomaniacal dictator in the Arab world. The message here is "follow your dreams", but when said message is delivered by an Arab sheik who never had to work a day in his life, forgive me for not getting on board. The real message is if you have enough money nothing is impossible. It also helps if you control some oil and can make western nations bend over backwards to help you. McGregor plays an expert from the fisheries department and he's a deeply unlikable character who never fully redeems himself at any point. Why someone as beautiful and witty as Blunt's character would be attracted to him is beyond me. As if it wasn't difficult enough to root for this budding relationship, the movie asks us to make a dodgy moral judgement. Blunt's boyfriend is a soldier who has gone MIA in Afghanistan so if we are to take McGregor's side we basically have to hope a soldier has been killed. This would be a fine dramatic twist if the situation wasn't played so lightly. Heaven forbid a war widow ever sits down to watch this. The attempts at comedy are painful, scenes depicting text messages between the prime minister and Scott-Thomas' foul-mouthed press officer particularly cringeworthy. Blunt and Scott-Thomas are very capable comic performers but McGregor seems to be getting worse with every role he takes. His comic timing is terrible, especially when paired with the magnetic Blunt, an actress who justifies that wornout cliche "the new Audrey Hepburn". There's also a crassly pro-religious message throughout this, McGregors scientist is shown as a man who lacks warmth and humanity because his life is missing "faith". If I was as rich and powerful as a Yemeni sheikh I'd have a lot of faith too.

• Sol C

  
  The film is a wonderful delight. Lasse Hallstrom hits another home run with this movie. The story is good but predictable. The performance are also good too. The cinematography in the movie is amazing. The movie studio should have released the movie in the Fall of 2012 or December of… More
  The film is a wonderful delight. Lasse Hallstrom hits another home run with this movie. The story is good but predictable. The performance are also good too. The cinematography in the movie is amazing. The movie studio should have released the movie in the Fall of 2012 or December of 2012 for Oscar consideration, instead of the March 2012 release. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt shine in this movie. They have a great on screen chemistry together. Kristin Scott Thomas is hilarious in the movie. She steals every scene that she is in. Amr Waked is also great as the Sheikh in the movie. The ending of the film reminded me of the ending of the Keaunu Reeves film "A Walk in the Clouds." Despite the film being predictable, it is very entertaining and I definitely recommend this movie.

• John C

  
  The smartest and most enjoyable romantic dramedy to come down the pike in quite some time. With a wonderful script and superb acting by McGregor, Blunt and notably Scott-Thomas, this movie was funny, spiritual and inspiring. All the elements to make it best of the year...so far.… More
  The smartest and most enjoyable romantic dramedy to come down the pike in quite some time. With a wonderful script and superb acting by McGregor, Blunt and notably Scott-Thomas, this movie was funny, spiritual and inspiring. All the elements to make it best of the year...so far. (3-27-12)

• Jason C

  
  The great thing about this time of year is that you get gems like Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. It's a very good movie. Not the kind that wins Oscars, but one that will be enjoyed by many. A director who's name doesn't get thrown around much, Lasse Hallstrom, makes a… More
  The great thing about this time of year is that you get gems like Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. It's a very good movie. Not the kind that wins Oscars, but one that will be enjoyed by many. A director who's name doesn't get thrown around much, Lasse Hallstrom, makes a successful movie again, in Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. He's responsible for great films like The Hoax, Chocolat, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and a movie I think shows what Jennifer Lopez could do as an actress if she took better roles, an Unfinished Life. That's a huge list, and just a few of the great movies he's done. That's a massively accomplished list. He's also lucky enough to have such a wonderfully brought together lead cast in Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. The rest of the supporting cast is also very good. Amr Waked makes his character very likable also. The one weak point is the obvious and currently overused "villain." It's not enough to make the movie fail by any means. The rest of Salmon Fishing is strong enough that it's only a small glitch. I was a little hesitant about watching Salmon Fishing In The Yemen because of the topic, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it is. Definitely worth seeing.

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