What the title lacks in adrenal, marquee-ready concision it makes up for with a dry brazenness that almost immediately betrays it’s British sensibility. And I will say, at an American production company this would have been a non-starter or, more likely, an overly saccharine bit of soapy pulp stripped of any larger intellectual aspirations. As it stands, Lasse Halleström’s (CHOCOLAT) new film, based on a book of the same name by Paul Torday, is appealing and light on its feet. While it’s nice to see two even intermittently believable adult characters falling in love, it’s the film’s landscape of government inveigling and media manipulation, across which the lovers swoon, that makes it feel a bit more worthwhile than your average feel-good date-extender. Mind the emphasis on a bit – it’s not nearly as toothy as it believes - but I’ll gladly take it over the next galumphing Nicholas Sparks tear-siphoner.
Nicholas of Movies Hate You Too writes:
Last weeks trend continues as Warner Bros. releases even more catalog titles from the 60s all the way through the 2000s. There’s a fare share of new releases as well but nothing to write home about. Lockout gets the unrated treatment that I predicted back in April, Mel Gibson’s direct-to-video ‘epic’ finally sees the light of day, and Will Farrell’s Spanish language bomb crosses the home market border to find a better life.
Nick's Blu-ray Pick of the Week...
Boolean Flix writes: "Many moons ago a young Scotsman called Ewan McGregor was making fast and hard films about life north of the border. Now he’s trying to find a new mould with his latest film, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, a multi-layered rom-com featuring a couple finding love while in charge of a sheikh’s project to bring salmon fishing to the arid Middle East."
Vicki Dolley writes: "Having directed previous easy-to-digest, standard romantic fare such as Chocolat and Dear John, one can know what to expect with Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It is a simple work, bizarrely surrounding fish and international relations: Dr Alfred Jones – portrayed by a rather oddly placed Ewan McGregor – an expert in fisheries working for the British government, is called upon by consultant (and representative of a wealthy Yemeni sheikh) Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) to introduce salmon fly-fishing to the deserts of Yemen in accordance with the vision of Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked). Alfred initially dismisses the idea as ridiculous, but eventually – after much pressure from the Prime Minister’s press secretary, the sharp Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) who wants to use the project as a press opportunity to show good Anglo-Arab relations in the midst of war, joins the project. He comes to believe in the project after spending time with Harriet and Sheikh Muhammad, and work towards the dream of bringing salmon fishing to Yemen."
