Ewan McGregor plays a habituated, uptight fish expert tapped by the young assistant of a wealthy Sheikh for an unexpected project in Salmon Fishing in The Yemen, the new film by director Lasse Hallstörm (Dear John, Chocolat). The sheikh (Amr Waked), it turns out, is an avid sport fisherman, spending much time at his picturesque Scottish estate, plucking salmon from the chilly streams. McGregor’s Dr. Alfred Jones is one of the foremost Salmon enthusiasts in the United Kingdom, and his routine is unmoored by the Sheikh, who ropes him into a plan to fund an elaborate dam and water construction project that would create a stream fit for salmon in the Arabian country.
The idealistic sheikh believes in sport fishing as a metaphor, and a way to introduce a hobby that could promote a wider appreciation of peace and tolerance. The stubbornly reasonable Jones sees it as a boondoggle, an indulgent waste of state funds by a Middle Eastern billionaire despot. Harriet (Emily Blunt) is stuck in the middle, and much of Salmon Fishing in The Yemen plays as a budding romance between the dashing, dutiful woman and the stodgier scientist.
Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) gives each character a neat (perhaps a little too neat) back story. Jones’ marriage is on the rocks, the couple losing themselves in their work. Harriet’s man is off at war, and he goes missing. The British government then catches wind of the salmon plot, and cabinet member Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees the entire project as a feel good story that might give British-Middle East relations a positive spin in light or recent conflicts.
These all come together to fuel Salmon Fishing‘s life lessons, in which both the personal and the political get swept up in the sheikh’s wide-eyed optimism. None of it goes down as smoothly as a fresh oyster, but that hardly matters. Hallstörm’s light, cheerful comedy has a throwback appeal, a touch of Preston Sturges romantic populism that derives much of its charm from the natural chemistry of central couple, McGregor and Blunt.
