Special thanks to the Ayala Malls Cinemas for the invites to this great event.
If there's anything that you'll have to learn from this BBC produced film its that life can sometimes be as simple as fishing or it can also be as complex and technical as fishing.
The movie's plot is very simple and yet the complexities found within the film makes for some engaging moments. A Yemeni sheik wants to build a man-made river where people can go salmon fishing. He asks his investment company to build the manpower and the resources needed to make the impossible happen. This leads Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) on a collision course with Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), a brilliant expert in Salmon for the British Ministry of Fisheries.
As impossible as it sounds, they manage to do the impossible (well this is a fictional story anyway so anything can happen).
There's a line in the film where the Yemen Sheik says something about fishing being a unifier of people. When people fish they are humble and patient. They do not care about the color of the skin of the fisherman next to him nor are they looking at other people's clothes. They simply wait for the fish to take the bait.
I now consider 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' as a film that is endearing. Sure there's very little chemistry between McGregor and Blunt but its the same imperfection that makes it such a thrill to see. Just like the whole premise of putting freshwater bear fodder in the middle of nowhere, the love story between the two main characters is imperfect but nice.
Emily Blunt's role as Harriet is nice. She gets to show a wide range of acting skills as she goes from quirky and funny to sophisticated to devastated and then there's that flirty look somewhere in between. If you haven't heard, Blunt was supposed to be the original Black Widow for Iron Man 2 and subsequently The Avengers. Seeing her in 'Salmon' made it difficult to relate the established look of ScarJo's Black Widow together with Blunt's physique and features. Glad that's one bullet that we've dodged.
Watching Ewan McGregor act as a brilliant fish scientist with Asperger's Syndrome isn't as painful as you read it. The Asperger's part is actually toned down a bit with the sad part being that its not pretty obvious as McGregor can do 'boring, uptight Brit' down to a pat.
There's also a part of the movie where McGregor reminds viewers that once upon a time, McGregor was Obi Wan Kenobi who trained the Skywalkers...
Don't worry about British sensibilities because there's very little that you'll need to be up to be speed. People who are worried that the flick will have a lot of Brit accents should not worry about that.
Another great thing about the film is that when the setting shifts from England to Yemen, the visuals and cinematography does a 180 degree shift. For a moment there I actually wanted to go and visit Yemen that is until I remembered that there's a lot of conflict and political strife in that area.
Before we dwell too much on other stuff, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is definitely a good movie. Part inspirational, part mushy, partly realistic and all parts entertaining.
Oh and the sheik looks like a Dragonball fusion between Ben Kingsley and Antonio Banderas. Just saying...
SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN is now showing in all Ayala Malls nationwide including Greenbelt and Glorietta.
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