Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012), directed by Lasse Hallstrom, 3.5 stars

A “best man wins” scenario plays out against the dream of a very wealthy sheikh (Amr Waked) to bring the sport of fresh water salmon fishing to the Yemen.  Ewan McGregor plays Dr. Alfred Jones, a British scientist in the public’s employ who is called upon to work the miracle.  Emily Blunt plays Harriet, the sheikh’s go-to gal, and Kristin Scott Thomas plays Patricia Jones, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, who lends government support to the aquatic effort because she knows the value of a good story, especially when elsewhere things political are not going so well.  Robert, played by Tom Mison, is Harriet’s love interest, but when he disappears during a covert raid in Afghanistan, Dr. Jones’ ministrations are the cure for what ails her, and the relationship blossoms on what I believe is referred to as the “rebound.”

Director Lasse Hallström (“Chocolat”) made the film in London, Scotland, and Morocco (not Yemen, perhaps for lack of water, perhaps for political reasons), and his film seems very much to want to play matchmaker not just to Alfred and Harriet, but to these geographic representations of eastern and western civilization as well.  My guess is that in today’s world, Alfred and Harriet have a better chance at a long-term relationship, though the world would be a much better place if I were wrong about that.  Perhaps, I need more faith, a virtue that the sheikh prizes highly.  He gently chides Alfred for thinking that science and faith are incompatible, and in the context of the film, he appears to be referring to faith in human potential rather than in religious ritual.  The film understandably backgrounds or sidesteps altogether the deeper rifts that divide European and Muslim culture.  The most extreme examples of extremist conflict occur between Arabs in support of the sheikh’s dream and those who see him as a potential puppet of the West.

You might wonder why I rated the film so highly when I seem more bent on trashing it than saying anything good.  The truth is that despite the presence of an all too familiar romantic narrative and its rather superficial treatment of cultures in conflict, I liked the film quite a bit.  From the first moment you see them together, you want Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt to hit it off.  The sheikh is so noble and wise in the ways of Europeans and Arabs that you immediately want his fantastic vision to materialize.  In between the dream and its fruition come bureaucratic bumblers, slimy politicians, angry Arabs, and seriously mismatched couples, but the plot resolves into a dewy-eyed finale that ends pretty good if not quite as well as one might have wished.