Paul Torday's novel, a absurdest political satire, has been adapted to the big screen by screenwriter Simon Beaufoy who also wrote the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, Dear John) was attracted to the story of life, love and passion and what propels us to cope and swim upstream. The biting edge in the book has been turned into a whimsical romantic comedy that is filled with beautiful actors, scenery and will insure that warm and cozy fluffy feeling.
Emily Blunt has stashed the typical clumsy harried character she usually plays to be Harriet Chetwode-Talbot a confident investment consultant for Yemen's Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) who wants to bring salmon fishing to his desert country. She brings in Alfred Jones(Ewan McGregor) a prickly fisheries specialist to advise on the project which he of course finds preposterous. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Bridget Maxwell the prime minister's press secretary who is trying to find some good news about the middle east jumps on the story as a way to distract the public and score points with her boss. She's the type that snaps her orders out and expects results.
The Sheik is a avid fly fisherman who has a Scottish estate sees this project as a way of uniting his people across barriers of sect and class. The uber cool and handsome sheik is an inspirational quasi-religious visionary. Alfred thinks he's mad but the sheik tells him “I have a dream that one day when war is in the air, someone will say 'gentlemen, let us arise and go fishing.” He wins over Alfred when they bond while fly fishing at his estate. Alfred and Harriet have to work closely together to figure out how to import 10,000 Scottish salmon to the desert. Alfred is in an unhappy marriage with a cold wife who leaves for months on business. Harriet's who was seriously looking for love gets a perfect soldier boyfriend that suddenly gets sent to Afghanistan and is reported missing in action. Alfred and Harriet are unlikely pair that develop a quirky kind of attraction getting swept up in the seemly impossible plan of bringing fish to the desert. McGregor and Blunt can't be any cuter or appealing.
The film is light and hopeful that the danger that involves some political subplot about a plot by Islamic extremists trying to destroy the Sheik feels a bit of an after thought. It's more exciting wondering if the fish will adapt and actually swim upstream. It all comes down to believing that it will all work, that the relationship of Harriet and Alfred will finally break through their discreet emotional connections, that something as so crazy as salmon in the desert will become a reality. The actors all do a competent job especially Scott Thomas as the edgy PR person who tries to turn the project into votes for her PM. A nice sweet date movie for those of us who still believe in love.
(Review by reesa)
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