Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

REVIEW BY TOM WORFOLK

Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are two of my favourite actors of the last 10 years, so when I hear that they are starring in a light comedy with a strange name then I'm all over it. I am so glad that I went to see it.

Salmon fishing in the Yemen has quite a tricky concept to grasp and I think its possibly been made a little too difficult to crasp due to the cryptic name of the film so I'll try and set it out a little more clearly - the premise of the film is about fishing for salmon in the Yemen. Wow - didn't see that one coming did you.

A visionary sheik believes his passion for the peaceful pastime of salmon fishing can enrich the lives of his people, and he dreams of bringing the sport to the not so fish-friendly desert. Willing to spare no expense, he instructs his representative (Blunt) to turn the dream into reality, an extraordinary feat that will require the involvement of Britain's leading fisheries expert (McGregor) who happens to think the project both absurd and unachievable. That is, until the Prime Minister's overzealous press secretary (Scott Thomas) latches on to it as a 'good will' story. Now, this unlikely team will put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible, possible.

That is what the film is about but not what it is really about. The film is really about the subplot and the context of Blunt's and McGregor's characters and how their stories entwine with each other. The director here has made a beautiful film by taken a very simple premise and taking a deeper look at it rather the usual take by making it bigger and better. It had the whole cinema laughing at moments and I am sure that they were all nearly crying at others.

A big mention must go out to Kristin Scott Thomas whose character is extremely sharp and witty and she plays it to perfection.

I haven;t read the book that this film is based on so I can't comment on how true to the book it is or even if it carries the same weight but rating the film as a completely separate entity I would have to say that this film is a cracker.

Year: 2012

running time: 107 minutes

classification: 12A

For more info look on the imdb website