Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

Delightful, as expected. Ewan McGregor is a Scottish fisheries expert consulting with Emily Blunt on the improbable scheme of bringing sport fishing to the middle east desert and a romantic comedy with conflict ensues. The movie lives up to its pedigree: Lasse Hallström (3 Oscar nominations) directs and Simon Beaufoy (1 win, 2 nominations) adapts Paul Torday's novel. I last wrote about McGregor in Haywire, and his Fred is quite wonderful, utilizing McGregor's native accent (perhaps thickened a bit after all this time of playing characters from this side of the pond) and giving us all the quirks and passions of the scientist. There is one single line in the middle of the movie about Asperger's Syndrome, yet Wikipedia describes his character Alfred Jones as having it. Jack and I didn't get that at all (perhaps it's that way in the novel). Lovely Emily Blunt (most recently mentioned in The Adjustment Bureau because I forgot her little part as Miss Piggy's receptionist in The Muppets) also gives us a warm and conflicted character in Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (McGregor says CHET-wood TALL-bert). Third billed is Kristin Scott Thomas (profiled in Nowhere Boy), camping it up as the frustrated press secretary Patricia Maxwell with much sarcasm and eye-rolling. The memorable quotes page on imdb has no entries, but if it did I would nominate "I'm your f***ing mother!" as hollered by Maxwell at her teenage son. She's very funny here, despite her usual roles being quite intense and serious. Amr Waked (was in Syriana (2005) and uncredited in the huge cast of Contagion, plus a fair amount of work in his native Egypt) plays the Sheik bankrolling the project as a non-threatening and trustworthy man--he's awfully good-looking, too.

Hallström is from Sweden and his first American picture was the relationship comedy Once Around (1991) with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss. I also quite liked What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Something to Talk About (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999 - his third nomination), Chocolat (2000), The Shipping News (2001), Casanova (2005), and The Hoax (2006) about Clifford Irving's unauthorized biography of Howard Hughes (I didn't see My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund - 1985) which earned Hallström nominations for directing and adapting the screenplay). Beaufoy's Oscar was won for adapting Slumdog Millionaire, and his nominations were for writing The Full Monty (1997) and 127 Hours (he also wrote Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and, as his Oscar proves, he can do politically-tinged comedy that tugs at your heartstrings.

Composer Dario Marianelli (I last wrote about him in Eat Pray Love) provides a soundtrack with elements of Scotland and Yemen. I listened to clips from the amazon page while writing this. There are three other movies I have write up but I wanted to make sure you have a chance to see this one, as it's playing close by in my neighborhood. We think you'll like it.