Sappiness in Yemen

And no, I don't think everyone in Yemen is emo. I'm referring to the movie "Salmon Fishing in Yemen." First off, in case you don't know where Yemen is:

There, now that you've learned something educational from this blog post, let's continue with the movie review. I was excited to see this movie. It received a lot of critic buzz and made the rounds at the 2011 indie film festival circuit  The movie is based on the success novel with the same name by Paul Torday. I haven't read the book but after looking into it, it sounds a lot different than the movie. The book is classified as a political satire and won a prize for comedic writing. I love dry British humor. I think I would have liked this movie a lot more if it had satire. Unfortunately Hollywood decided to turn it into a romantic drama. And that was the beginning of their downfall. The movie stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, two skilled British actors.Their acting abilities did not equal on-screen chemistry. The premise of the movie is that Harriett (Blunt) is trying to help foster Yemen-England relations for her boss but creating a goodwill story. Somehow she decides that the perfect story would be to introduce the sport of salmon fly fishing to Yemen. The movie doesn't provide any background as to where this out-there concept came from. She enlists the non-eager British government expert in salmon fisheries with Asperger's syndrome to help, Fred (McGregor). A Yemen sheikh decides donate millions of pounds to fund this project and bring salmon to the Yemen. This is not an easy task and they go through many hurdles trying to get this up and running. I think that part of the movie is interesting.

The part of the movie I take issue with is the romantic plot line. At the beginning Harriett is dating a solider who gets sent to war, promptly going MIA. Fed is married to a very career-oriented, ambitious woman who's work requires a lot of travel. Seemingly out of nowhere, halfway through the movie, Fred comes to the realization that he's in love with Harriett after his wife approaches him and calls him out on it. Harriett's been a weepy mess because she assumes her MIA boyfriend is probably dead. Instantaneously she returns Fred's affections. I won't spoil the ending even though I think you can guess where this is going. Anyway, the second part of the movie is extremely sappy. I really think they should have left it a political British satire. Rent this one if you want a sappy British love story that makes no sense. Watch "Love Actually" if you want a sappy British move that's actually good.