Salmon fishing is just the objective correlative of an undeniably ethereal truth: dreams. We all need dreams to make our lives move on. And we all need faith and hard work to accomplish and achieve them. "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" is a British movie - starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked and Kristin Scott Thomas, with Hugh Simon (Malcom in Spooks) in a minor hilarious role - which tries to bring all that on the screen disguised as a modern fairy-tale romance.
Swedish director Lasse Hallström tries to convey the unbelievable through cunny British humour: you smile at the absurdity of the situations and accept them as feasible, you might even like them. A fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) is approached by a consultant (Emily Blunt) to help realize a sheik's (Amr Waked) vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible. When it becomes a government-backed scheme, wheels greased by the prime minister’s shark-like press secretary
Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is desperate to turn the sheikh’s utopian plan into a positive Middle East news story, even skeptical expert Mr Jones (McGregor) starts believing in the project ... Watch a scene from the movie
Simon Beaufoy 's screenplay, from a novel by Paul Torday , plays on the feeling of going against the flow, with hints to contemporary politics and everything wrapped up with love and romance in stunning locations (Scotland and Morocco).
It was a weekend of good watchings and re-watchings this one, full of romance and tenderness: Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility, a few episodes from Poldark series 2 (almost finished!) and, last but not least, this new movie at the cinema (in Italian theatres since May 18). It won't end up kept among my unforgettable but it is a good-feel very-British comedy and I liked it.
Official trailer