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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Lasse Hallström's breezy adaptation of Paul Torday's satiric novel, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, features dedicated anglers and arid Middle Eastern vistas, but it's a screwball comedy at heart (with Morocco standing in for Yemen). Bridget (Kristin Scott Thomas), the prime minister's steamroller of a press secretary, sets the story in motion when she reads about a fabulously wealthy sheik (Amr Waked) who longs to bring fly-fishing to the desert. She believes that cooperation with his country would be good for Britain's image, while the sheik has more altruistic goals in mind. This leads her to mild-mannered fisheries expert Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor, effectively cast against type), who feels certain the endeavor is pure fantasy until hyper-efficient Harriet (Emily Blunt), the sheik's land agent, brings him some surprising data about the region. Though Fred's marriage has been running on fumes, Harriet has been seeing a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Initially, the two are all business as they devise a plan involving a system of dams, but their feelings for each other gradually rise to the surface. Just as their impossible dream appears to be coming true, a series of unexpected developments threatens to scupper the entire enterprise. The road to a mostly happy ending isn't without its potholes, but Hallström (Chocolat) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire) make it a trip worth taking. If their scenario prizes romance over politics, McGregor and Blunt mount a charm offensive too persuasive to resist. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
Ewan McGregor (Beginners) and Emily Blunt (The Adjustment Bureau) star alongside Oscarc-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long) and Amr Waked (Syriana) in this extraordinary, beguiling tale of fly-fishing and political spinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love and of an attempt to prove the impossible, possible. Directed by Oscarc-nominee Lasse Hallstr”m (Chocolat) and written by Oscarc-winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), this feature film is based on Paul Torday's acclaimed novel about a scientist who looks to fulfills a sheikh's dream of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to his homeland in Yemen. It is produced by Paul Webster (The Motorcycle Diaries) and executive produced by Jamie Laurenson, Stephen Garrett, Paula Jalfon, Zygi Kamasa and Guy Avshalom.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By Jay B. Lane
Format:DVD
The Yemen is a river in the country of Yemen, which occupies the south-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula. As we know, that entire middle-eastern area is hot, dry, and arid. In this Lasse Halstrom-directed dramedy, an oil-billionaire sheik from Yemen owns several estates in Scotland and has developed a fondness for fly fishing. He dreams of a way to bring the sport to his homeland and at the same time encourage his fellow countrymen to upgrade their way of life with an improved water supply.
We loved this cast (mostly) from the UK:
* Emily Blunt ("The Devil Wears Prada") is the first person contacted by the sheik. Her job is to research the practicality of the idea and make a recommendation. To complicate matters, her fiancé is soon reported missing in (military) action in Afghanistan.
* Ewan McGregor ("Beginners") is a mid-level bureaucrat with a touch of Asperger's who loves fly fishing on weekends. When approached about the feasibility of this experiment, he makes outlandish demands, assuming that their cost will deter these foolish people. He is struck dumb when his demands are met, e.g., the engineers who designed the Three Gorges Dam in China.
* Kristen Scott Thomas ("Nowhere Boy") is a blunt, plain-spoken government official who can see the public relations advantages for news from the Mid-east that doesn't include the escalating price of petroleum or body bags. She is hilarious in this (initially) preposterous plot and provides many laugh-out-loud moments. You will LOVE her e-mails!
* Amr Waked ("The Father and the Foreigner") is the fabulously wealthy sheik with the dream. It's obvious that he is intelligent and has already studied the situation. When our troubled heroine denies she is anxious, he says, "I have too many wives not to know when a woman is upset!" We can see why this actor is a heartthrob in his native Egypt.
* Tom Mison ("One Day") is our heroine's fiancé, loving, considerate AND handsome!
I haven't read Paul Torday's novel on which this film is based, but knowing salmon are anadromous, I suspect the migration to salt water would be too hot and arduous, so I personally had reservations about feasibility. On the other hand, this film had far more comedy than we expected and was far more touching as well, so eventually it didn't matter. I even got goosebumps when that fish turned around and started upstream. Nice surprise!
I've signed up to be notified when this becomes available on DVD from Amazon.com
We loved this cast (mostly) from the UK:
* Emily Blunt ("The Devil Wears Prada") is the first person contacted by the sheik. Her job is to research the practicality of the idea and make a recommendation. To complicate matters, her fiancé is soon reported missing in (military) action in Afghanistan.
* Ewan McGregor ("Beginners") is a mid-level bureaucrat with a touch of Asperger's who loves fly fishing on weekends. When approached about the feasibility of this experiment, he makes outlandish demands, assuming that their cost will deter these foolish people. He is struck dumb when his demands are met, e.g., the engineers who designed the Three Gorges Dam in China.
* Kristen Scott Thomas ("Nowhere Boy") is a blunt, plain-spoken government official who can see the public relations advantages for news from the Mid-east that doesn't include the escalating price of petroleum or body bags. She is hilarious in this (initially) preposterous plot and provides many laugh-out-loud moments. You will LOVE her e-mails!
* Amr Waked ("The Father and the Foreigner") is the fabulously wealthy sheik with the dream. It's obvious that he is intelligent and has already studied the situation. When our troubled heroine denies she is anxious, he says, "I have too many wives not to know when a woman is upset!" We can see why this actor is a heartthrob in his native Egypt.
* Tom Mison ("One Day") is our heroine's fiancé, loving, considerate AND handsome!
I haven't read Paul Torday's novel on which this film is based, but knowing salmon are anadromous, I suspect the migration to salt water would be too hot and arduous, so I personally had reservations about feasibility. On the other hand, this film had far more comedy than we expected and was far more touching as well, so eventually it didn't matter. I even got goosebumps when that fish turned around and started upstream. Nice surprise!
I've signed up to be notified when this becomes available on DVD from Amazon.com
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a hard film to categorize. Directed by Lasse Hallström, with a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy adapted from the novel of the same name by Paul Torday, you could nominally call it a romantic comedy, but it's actually far more than that. A character-driven human comedy about faith, passion and fishing comes closer. Add in an absolutely scene-stealing performance by Kristin Scott Thomas as the Prime Minister's take-no-prisoners get-it-done-yesterday! press secretary and you've got Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
The film begins with Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor), the British government's leading expert on fisheries, receiving an inquiry about the feasibility of introducing salmon fishing to the Yemen. Jones quickly dismisses the possibility, responding that it is simply impossible for salmon - a fish that thrives in cold fresh-water streams found in northern latitudes - to survive in a hot and arid environment like the Yemen. The inquiry, it turns out, came from Harriet Chetwood-Talbot (Emily Blunt), a consultant for a company that manages properties for a very wealthy client, Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) from the Yemen. The Sheikh has a vision of salmon fishing, which he became familiar with due to his having an estate in Scotland, as not only a way to create much needed jobs for his people, but also as a way of bringing people together. Undeterred by Jones' initial rejection and buoyed by the persuasive Sheikh's belief in his vision, Harriet persists in pushing for a feasibility study, which Jones continues to dismiss. Until, that is, the project comes to the attention of the Prime Minister's press secretary, the highly formidable and relentless Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas).
A series of recent news items about bombings and other setbacks in the war in Afghanistan, already highly unpopular, has left the government desperately in need of "Anglo-Arabian news that isn't about something exploding." After tasking her staff with "We need a good news story from the Middle East, a big one, and we need it now. You've got an hour. Get on with it!" Maxwell seizes on the salmon fishing project as ideal for the government's needs and pushes it forward, riding rough-shod over any and all objections as to the project's chances of actually working. Which in turn sets everything in motion and brings all of the main characters face to face.
Ewan McGregor's Fred Jones is a man who muses "I was wondering if I was genetically programed to dull pedestrian life." He's comfortable in his government job where his biggest challenge is picking out pictures of fish to spice up his annual report; he's married but it's a passionless marriage, as becomes poignantly clear when his wife (Rachel Stirling) takes a several-months assignment in Switzerland, only bothering to tell him as she's packing for the trip. Emily Blunt's Harriet Chetwood-Talbot, on the other hand, is Fred's exact opposite, passionate in her job and in her private life where she's had a whirlwind romance with a hunk of an army officer (Tom Mison) who's just been deployed to Afghanistan. And Amr Waked's Sheikh rounds out the trio, a philosophical, quietly charismatic man who has a vision that he pursues all the more passionately because it is so impossible. A chemistry develops among the three as Fred finds himself - much to his surprise - responding to Harriet's optimistic vivacity and to the Sheikh's belief that the more impossible a thing is, the more it is worth pursuing, even when - or rather especially when - all you have to go on is faith. In addition to becoming not only engaged by but increasingly optimistic about the salmon project, Fred also finds himself coming to believe that other things are also possible as his working relationship with Harriet blossoms into something else. Between the two, Fred ends up making his own leaps of faith, with regard to the Sheikh's fantastical project and to the prospect of finding real love with Harriet.
But it is Kristin Scott Thomas' over-the-top press secretary Patricia Maxwell with her take-no-prisoners approach to everything who supplies the comedy. A powerhouse on high heels, Maxwell dominates everyone else around her, up to and including the Prime Minister himself, and she has far and away the best lines in the film which she delivers with acerbic glee - "Is that the best you cocked-up, Oxford-educated, moronic buffoons can come up with?" She also has the best scenes, like ones showing her at home where she's kicking her kids' butts at computer games or ordering them off to school, and you realize that she treats the government ministers above and around her exactly the same way as she handles her kids. And the scenes showing the IM exchanges between her icon and that of the rather hapless Prime Minister are absolutely priceless.
In addition to an engaging script and fine performances by the actors, the cinematography is also quite well done, taking you from highly diverse settings of urban London, rural Scotland and the desert wadis of the Yemen (actually shot in Morocco), all beautifully shot. The scene where the Sheikh discusses his dream project with Jones while the two are fly-fishing is imbued with a grace and tranquility gives added feeling to the Sheikh's vision and you begin to see exactly what he is talking about.
My only quibbles about the film are fairly minor. The way in which Harriet's boyfriend's ill-timed reappearance is handled is dealt with a bit too neatly and ends up feeling out of place. And the reactions on the part of the Sheikh and Jones when some disgruntled Yemenis attempt to sabotage the project seems more "message" oriented than how real people would actually react. But those aside, the rest of the film flows quite smoothly, leaving you both entertained and with more than a bit of its quietly infectious optimism.
Recommended as a quirky but highly enjoyable film and for Kristin Scott Thomas' riotously over-the-top performance.
The film begins with Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor), the British government's leading expert on fisheries, receiving an inquiry about the feasibility of introducing salmon fishing to the Yemen. Jones quickly dismisses the possibility, responding that it is simply impossible for salmon - a fish that thrives in cold fresh-water streams found in northern latitudes - to survive in a hot and arid environment like the Yemen. The inquiry, it turns out, came from Harriet Chetwood-Talbot (Emily Blunt), a consultant for a company that manages properties for a very wealthy client, Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) from the Yemen. The Sheikh has a vision of salmon fishing, which he became familiar with due to his having an estate in Scotland, as not only a way to create much needed jobs for his people, but also as a way of bringing people together. Undeterred by Jones' initial rejection and buoyed by the persuasive Sheikh's belief in his vision, Harriet persists in pushing for a feasibility study, which Jones continues to dismiss. Until, that is, the project comes to the attention of the Prime Minister's press secretary, the highly formidable and relentless Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas).
A series of recent news items about bombings and other setbacks in the war in Afghanistan, already highly unpopular, has left the government desperately in need of "Anglo-Arabian news that isn't about something exploding." After tasking her staff with "We need a good news story from the Middle East, a big one, and we need it now. You've got an hour. Get on with it!" Maxwell seizes on the salmon fishing project as ideal for the government's needs and pushes it forward, riding rough-shod over any and all objections as to the project's chances of actually working. Which in turn sets everything in motion and brings all of the main characters face to face.
Ewan McGregor's Fred Jones is a man who muses "I was wondering if I was genetically programed to dull pedestrian life." He's comfortable in his government job where his biggest challenge is picking out pictures of fish to spice up his annual report; he's married but it's a passionless marriage, as becomes poignantly clear when his wife (Rachel Stirling) takes a several-months assignment in Switzerland, only bothering to tell him as she's packing for the trip. Emily Blunt's Harriet Chetwood-Talbot, on the other hand, is Fred's exact opposite, passionate in her job and in her private life where she's had a whirlwind romance with a hunk of an army officer (Tom Mison) who's just been deployed to Afghanistan. And Amr Waked's Sheikh rounds out the trio, a philosophical, quietly charismatic man who has a vision that he pursues all the more passionately because it is so impossible. A chemistry develops among the three as Fred finds himself - much to his surprise - responding to Harriet's optimistic vivacity and to the Sheikh's belief that the more impossible a thing is, the more it is worth pursuing, even when - or rather especially when - all you have to go on is faith. In addition to becoming not only engaged by but increasingly optimistic about the salmon project, Fred also finds himself coming to believe that other things are also possible as his working relationship with Harriet blossoms into something else. Between the two, Fred ends up making his own leaps of faith, with regard to the Sheikh's fantastical project and to the prospect of finding real love with Harriet.
But it is Kristin Scott Thomas' over-the-top press secretary Patricia Maxwell with her take-no-prisoners approach to everything who supplies the comedy. A powerhouse on high heels, Maxwell dominates everyone else around her, up to and including the Prime Minister himself, and she has far and away the best lines in the film which she delivers with acerbic glee - "Is that the best you cocked-up, Oxford-educated, moronic buffoons can come up with?" She also has the best scenes, like ones showing her at home where she's kicking her kids' butts at computer games or ordering them off to school, and you realize that she treats the government ministers above and around her exactly the same way as she handles her kids. And the scenes showing the IM exchanges between her icon and that of the rather hapless Prime Minister are absolutely priceless.
In addition to an engaging script and fine performances by the actors, the cinematography is also quite well done, taking you from highly diverse settings of urban London, rural Scotland and the desert wadis of the Yemen (actually shot in Morocco), all beautifully shot. The scene where the Sheikh discusses his dream project with Jones while the two are fly-fishing is imbued with a grace and tranquility gives added feeling to the Sheikh's vision and you begin to see exactly what he is talking about.
My only quibbles about the film are fairly minor. The way in which Harriet's boyfriend's ill-timed reappearance is handled is dealt with a bit too neatly and ends up feeling out of place. And the reactions on the part of the Sheikh and Jones when some disgruntled Yemenis attempt to sabotage the project seems more "message" oriented than how real people would actually react. But those aside, the rest of the film flows quite smoothly, leaving you both entertained and with more than a bit of its quietly infectious optimism.
Recommended as a quirky but highly enjoyable film and for Kristin Scott Thomas' riotously over-the-top performance.
38 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
If you're going to see this delightful movie, the first thing you need to do is to shut down your critical faculties. Don't ask questions about the state of Ewan McGregor's marriage, or the logic of moving thousands of salmon, or the likelihood of a woman hugging an Arab sheikh in a Muslim country, or the ease with which people travel long distances, and so forth. It doesn't matter because the gentle tone of the movie - even with the satirical edge of Kristin Scott Thomas' extremely obnoxious but funny Assistant to the Prime Minister - just carries you away. It's sweet, it's charming, it's not cloying and it definitely draws you in to the story. This is the first movie I've been in a long time where the character of a Scot is a key plot element. [What was the name of the wonderful one years ago with Peter Resier (?) and Burt Lancaster as Texans looking for oil off the cost of Scotland?] Ewan McGregor gets to use his own Scots accent and is just wonderful and appealing in his role. Emily Blunt is also good, as she rolls with the plot.
If you're in the mood for a lovely, gently comic, romantic movie, this is the one.
If you're in the mood for a lovely, gently comic, romantic movie, this is the one.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gentle
Wish the world would just work together as a team! Simple pleasures in life is what it is all about!
Published 1 hour ago by Plin7
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Emily Blount and Kristen Scott Thomas characters are superficial...
The plot is so contrived and superficial it boggles the mind. This is one of the worst movies I have seen in years. Amazon should have paid me $10 to watch it.
Published 1 day ago by sharon levin
3.0 out of 5 stars
Charming, brisk, but predictable, shallow and unconvincing
The script is breezy and British and tries to be witty, with cutesy music bouncing along throughout, but the writing is shallow and contrived, and the characters lack any real... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Ron4Sure
5.0 out of 5 stars
good family film
When I saw the reviews in the theater for this, It did not appear to me. Sounded like a strange premise. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Diana J. Larson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unexpected pleasure
Loved this movie...Quirky mix of comedy, love and spirituality. Liked the positivity it suggested, that we can get along with other nations, like Gene Roddenberry did with Star... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Cynthia A. Canterberry
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre depiction of the book
Glossed over too many interactions of the characters especially of the wife. The changed ending was stupid. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Richard Taylor
1.0 out of 5 stars
Truly dreadful. Romantic relationship utterly unbelievable.
WARNING: Contains plot spoilers.
The only reason this doesn't get 0 stars is because Kristen Scott Thomas is pretty funny. Read more
The only reason this doesn't get 0 stars is because Kristen Scott Thomas is pretty funny. Read more
Published 26 days ago by Miss Darcy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A surprisingly pleasant journey.
I enjoyed this movie. I stumbled across this lat at night during an attack of insomnia. Its a simple storyline not bogged down in complexity - don't get me wrong this movie has... Read more
Published 28 days ago by Marnie
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really good purchase
This review is from: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Amazon Instant Video)
It hasn't gotten much acclaim I the states, but this film is really good.. Read more
It hasn't gotten much acclaim I the states, but this film is really good.. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Julia
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought provoking
This film had a lot to do with "faith", not always how we think it will present itself. I loved this movie
Published 29 days ago by Carol Hopkins
