Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: Critic Reviews

[Salmon Fishing in the Yemen] takes us back to the sort of achingly civilized love story in which the only thing that really stands in the way of two people falling for each other is their own decorum

The appeal of the film depends on the charm of Mr. McGregor and Ms. Blunt, whose polite but discreetly charged connection is the story's emotional center.

The weakest part of this film is the ferocious government PR chief, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, with much lip-pursing and eye-rolling, but nothing funny or believable in the script for her to say.

Despite sporting the worst cinematic title since The Chumscrubber, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen hooks some charming laughs and a quaint romance by not delving too deeply into its subject matter.

Somehow managing to be both twee and edgy, the absurdist but gently winning romantic comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen works a strange kind of wonder.

Proudly, it has no conviction to offer, just the comforts of its genericness.

Mostly sacrifices the political satire and epistolary structure of Paul Torday's source novel in favor of cute, if strained, rom-com shenanigans.

Hallstrom ... goes for a "Local Hero"-type feeling, but the movie has to swim upstream to get anywhere.

Somehow, this cast, this director and this writer make it all come off, as unlikely a delight as the very fishy story it is built on.

[It] isn't such a shriveled runt you'd throw it back, but a little more attention in the direction and adaptation could have helped it feel a little more developed and fleshed-out than it is.

This perhaps sounds like a hilarious movie. So it could be, in the hands of the masters of classic British comedy.

There's a great romantic comedy in this material, somewhere, which is too bad, because the movie that did get made is decent if a bit bland.

Hallstrom, the old softie, can't resist turning this into an inspirational tale, a freshwater Field of Dreams.

It is what it is, and if you find McGregor and Blunt appealing, the movie will have you feeling similarly about it.

While "Salmon Fishing" fritters away the comic momentum of its madcap opening chapters, it's like angling -- a pleasant diversion if you can look below the surface and muster the patience to appreciate it.

A charming little movie.

It's a spirited, eloquent film-delightfully offbeat, deliciously different and well worth investigating.

With most of the book's major themes gutted, it begs the question: Who wants to see a film about salmon fishing in the Yemen?

Trust me: These are characters with whom it's a pleasure to spend a couple of hours.

The withering political pungency, the commentary on terrorism and the searing critique of nationalism and patriotism that made the book a best-seller in the U.K. are replaced by a comforting surface sheen and a lot of unconvincing nonsense...

Make the leap, and you'll be delighted by a movie that's sugary goodness, a guilty pleasure.

Call me a sentimentalist, but I enjoyed myself - even during the scenes when there was a lot of talk about fish.

Fly fishing is offered as a path to peace in rom-com whose ample charms are threatened by unnecessary buzz-kills.

Salmon Fishing was a novel first and you can see how all these juggled balls could stay in the air on the page, but in movie form, many of them just seem extraneous.

McGregor and Blunt have charm to spare and the no-bull instinct to cut to the heart of a scene. In the Dead Sea of Hollywood formula, their film is a distinct delight, brimming over with spirit and surprise.