I Swear To Cod, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen Is An Incredibly Tedious Movie

Like Cameron Crowe's 2011 movie We Bought A Zoo, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen received a lot of online-based rib-poking based on its unorthodox animal-based title. It's a mouthful for sure and I'd imagine they'd have likely just called it Gone Fishin' if that wasn't already the title of a 1997 Joe Pesci/Danny Glover comedy everybody has long forgotten about. But, this is the title it was dealt with and at least it didn't prevent it from getting a Golden Globe Best Picture nod, though unfortunately for this movie in regards to my review, it's lengthy title is at the very bottom of the complaints I have with this overly tedious feature.

Fish obsessed doctor Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) has just been handed quite the impossible task; help a government-ordered mission to transport thousands of salmon to Yemen where Sheikh Tihama (Amr Waked) hopes to create a place where people can fish in an environment typically not known for fishing. Alfred Jones is convinced it's a fool's errand, that these fish cannot survive in such living conditions, but Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) feels otherwise and she and Alfred team up to make this Shiekh's unorthodox dream a reality despite the notably momentous odds stacked up against them.

Despite having so many obstacles to face (many of them oddly contrived and abruptly introduced, such as individuals violently opposed to the operation in Tihama's home), Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is a seriously lethargic movie, mostly because the characters are so poorly conceived. Alfred Jones is a potentially Autistic character (like many movies or TV shows with major characters displaying symptoms associated with Autism, they irritatingly refuse to confirm if he has Autism or not, they just want to use those symptoms to move plot points along) who just acts like a jerk to everyone and then suddenly develops a romantic affection for Harriet. Harriet, meanwhile, misses her Army boyfriend and doesn't have much else in the way of personality on her.

These two are thinly written characters that are supposed to provide the emotional crux of the entire story, yet they come off as utterly disinteresting both as individual human beings and especially in their romantic interactions. The supporting cast is a hodgepodge of stereotypes as well, with Sheikh Tihama particularly being a cringe-inducing South Arabian equivalent to the Magical Negro stereotype around solely to provide support and kernels of wisdom to the white protagonists. Yuck. All of these poorly done characters means it's impossible to truly get invested in the movie's storyline which isn't helped by the fact that the directing, cinematography and editing are all so very pedestrian.

All of the extended dialogue scenes (which make up a good chunk of the running time) are shot in this incredibly unimaginative way that lacks any sense of identity to a shocking degree, such slapdash filming really allows the lackluster dialogue to sink in and makes every conversation between the characters a drag. Medium shots are a great tool when used properly to visually depict conversations between characters or even just show one individual speaking but the movie leans on this specific shot to such a degree that it becomes distracting, though the anemic writing failing to distract me is likely an equally plausible factor as to why that stood out to me.

Director Lasse Hallstrom (who did a far better drama in 2007's The Hoax) leaves no imprint of his own personality in a film desperately in need of some form of individuality. Instead, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen succumbs to tedium and fails to register in one's mind beyond having an unorthodox title. Throw this movie back in the lake and see if you can catch something with a bit more "oomph" to itself or at least something that doesn't cast great actors like Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt in lead roles and then utterly waste them.