Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The title alone is intriguing. Yes, the film is very aware that they are discussing fishing in a desert. In fact Dr. Alfred Jones (played by Ewan McGregor in a full Irish accent) mocks the idea in his first scene of the film. The film starts off a little strangely. Enter Harriet (Emily Blunt) typing an email to Dr. Jones explaining that Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) would like to bring the sport of fishing to his homeland. As she is typing and doing a voice over the words are popping up on screen like those really annoying Denis Leary Ford F-150 commercials. Dr. Jones reads and replies to said email with the words again showing up on screen. Only this time, he is reading aloud whilst typing and his wife throws in an adjective he agrees with, backspaces and replaces. These are the only times that either voice overs or out of nowhere text appear in the film. While I am happy they got rid of the technique I question why it was ever there to begin with as it seemed unnecessary. Really, how often do you speak aloud as you type?
The film hits a stride after it's rocky opening and is fairly fast paced. Well, as fast paced as a film about trying to build a river in Yemen with salmon so the Sheikh can fish at home can be. Harriet has a soldier boyfriend, Robert (Tom Milson), who she knows for all of three weeks before he is shipped off to Afghanistan. He asks her to wait for him, a move that strangely doesn't feel strange or forced at all. It's when Harriet gets alarming news about Robert the film really picks up emotionally. You finally get a connection to the characters, Dr. Jones especially. The three main characters of Harriet, Dr. Jones, and Sheikh Muhammed are all remarkably likeable, which is a surprise for most films these days.
The issue is, the films flaws are too big and too many to overlook. Just when I was thinking how interesting it was to watch one relationship grow stronger as another one is failing, they throw a curve ball and turn what seemed to be a great friendship with no romantic chemistry into a love story that felt out of place. There was no "aha!" moment that made you feel that Dr. Jones and Harriet were falling in love. There was no gradual build up towards it either. It was simply a writer who felt that the characters needed something to drive them. I am a firm believer that a movie should be about characters that react to a situation or event that happens to them. Not about characters who have interesting things happen to them to drive a plot. I get that it's hard not to fall in love with Emily Blunt, especially with her native accent, but this storyline was unnecessary and the film suffered because of it.
Another flaw is the first couple scenes with Sheikh Mohammed. His character starts off as an all-knowing insight to everything. He has a philosophy and can pinpoint the thoughts in everyone's head without them saying a word. They back off of this as the film continues to make his character much more entertaining and enjoyable. Being a Sheikh and dealing with the English is a good way to get yourself noticed by people trying to keep the Western world out of the Middle East. This turns into two separate assassination attempts that have little impact on the story and surprisingly little impact on the Sheikh himself.
The other main issue I had with the film was Kristen Scott Thomas' character Patricia Maxwell is the press secretary for the Prime Minister and is an absolute waste of screen time. The worst part is when they have her iChatting (Do people still use iChat?) with the Prime Minister trying to get laughs. The attempt comes up dull and her political presence is off putting regardless of your political standpoint.
These flaws aside the film is what I like to consider a Sunday afternoon movie. It is nowhere near a great film. Maybe not even a good one. However, when I see it come on TBS on a lazy Sunday I won't be in a rush to turn it off and won't regret spending my two hours watching it. Just as long as I'm not paying for it
C+.
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