File this one under droll and partly quaint Brit arthouse-lite vehicle saved by an Emily.
Blunt, that is. No, not the film, the Emily. Ever since playing the plain-Jane office assistant in Devil Wears Pravda, Emily Blunt’s been one to watch. As Young Victoria she was a convincing queen. Most recently she helped glide us through the sci-fi overreach The Adjustment Bureau as Matt Damon’s forbidden lass. She’s got a frisky screen presence. Here she’s the antidote to an Asberger-ish main character played by reliable if over-saturated Ewan MacGregor. (No, it only SEEMS like he’s doing ten films a year lately.)
I’ve waited until now to speak of their new film, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen because, well, it’s often about as interesting as salmon fishing in some dry river across the other side of the world. McGregor is Dr. Alfred Jones, an uber-scientist who knows a lot about fish and has about as much curiosity and adventure to his outlook and existence as your average hermit crab. His daily routines make rigid look like jello. His saving grace may well be his ability to mock himself. Even when adhering to repeat behaviors like calling Blunt by her surname Miss Chetwood-Talbot despite her invite to call her Harriet, he’s dead serious, yet somehow also aware he’s being a dweeb. Blunt’s some sort of marketing whiz hired by an ultra rich sheikh (Amr Waked) to throw a cool 50 million British pounds toward a fairy dust project of shipping a mere 10,000 salmon across the world so he and his people can, er, fish to their heart’s content. Build a dam and they will come if you add enough cash.
If you don’t drift off and start thinking about some other, better movie, you’ll encounter numerous subplots worthy of plodding through. McGregor and his wife have a paint-by-numbers marriage. Blunt falls for a dude who is soon shipped off to Afghanistan. British fishermen go into an uproar when a government agency threatens to remove most of their salt water salmon stock and ship it off to the Middle East. Farm salmon are substituted. The sheikh is a nice guy who offers McGregor aspirational life bromides worthy of Wayne Dyer. There’s a lot of fishing, which McGregor does proficiently (after all, he invented something called the Wiley Jones fly), while the sheikh gamely fishes knee-deep in his river without taking off his robes. Things eventually go well with the longshot project despite McGregor’s stiff skepticism. Then things go bad. Stick around, they may go well again before the film’s over.
The redoubtable Kristin Scott Thomas shines as a press secretary for the British Prime Minister. She’s great at ridiculing everyone around her while simultaneously getting them to do exactly what she wishes. For director Lasse Hallstrom (Cider House Rules) it’s now 27 years and nearly as many films since his masterpiece My Life As A Dog. Screenwriter Simon Beaufort (Slumdog Millionaire) adapts the Paul Today novel.
Throughout I was anchored by Blunt’s lure, which she cast off as a bemused, near tongue-in-cheek tolerance and growing affection for McGregor. He’ll eventually try to reel her in, a move not as smooth as his fly-casting. She’ll reach a low tide, then have a third-act resurgence. You’ll have lots of light chuckles and may even decide to take up a little fishing. It may be awhile, though before you’ll venture off into another fishing film. Even with a hook as good as Blunt, this one can be fishy.
6 Fishy Dweebs (out of 10)
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