Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie Review

Hook this film into your Blu-ray collection.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 2, 2012

Fish it is!

Two of Director Lasse Hallström's latest films, Hachi: A Dog's Story and Dear John, get at base human emotions of love and attachment and separation. Those qualities are present in abundance in his latest -- the funny, touching, and lovable Salmon Fishing in the Yemen -- but not quite in the same style and proportions as one might expect. The picture isn't overtly emotional but rather subtly so. It's more concerned with the larger picture than the smaller picture, how people come together and drift apart and relate to one another in a greater purpose rather than how their relationships shape the world around them and their perception of it. The movie is filled with wonder and awe, wonder and awe at how big the world is and how small it may become, of differences and similarities, of love of all kinds, of friendship, of disappointment, of dreaming, and of achieving. It's a movie of grand ideas and lofty goals, but presented on a fairly intimate level, even within the deluge of details and challenges and disagreements and open eyes and initially closed minds. It's funny, serious, charming, heartwarming, and even heartbreaking. It's a little bit of everything as it tells a single story shaped by several people distanced by miles and ideas but who come together in unexpected ways and find unexpected results to an impossible challenge. It's big, it's intimate, it's fishing, it's friendship, it's love, it's life.

Aye Sheikh, there be salmon here!

Tensions are high in both the United Kingdom and the Middle East. A recent UK military incursion into that region has proven disastrous, leaving the fates of several soldiers in question. Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long), a public relations guru working for the Prime Minister himself, is tasked with finding a feel-good story accentuating positive relationships between the two regions to ease tensions over the botched operation. She stumbles upon a plan to transport salmon into Yemen for the purpose of fishing. She latches onto the plan, even if it's a plan that seems doomed from the beginning, despite the best of intentions. A wealthy Yemeni Sheikh, Muhammad (Amr Waked, Syriana), has tasked his representative, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria), with contacting the UK's foremost expert on salmon, Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor, Angels & Demons), and set in motion a plan to transport the salmon to Yemen and design for them a habitat where they may not only survive, but thrive. But in the good Doctor's opinion, the plan "unfeasible, fundamentally unfeasible." He hesitates to follow through beyond a polite e-mail reply stating what he believes to be the obvious, but when he's told to go to Yemen and speak with the Sheikh directly or lose his job, he chooses the former. It turns out the plan's a little more feasible and scientifically possible, even plausible, than he could have imagined, at least when looking at the raw statistics on paper. There, he finds an unlikely friend, a burgeoning romance, a home for the salmon, and a purpose even he could not have foreseen.

For the lofty goal and for as much money, manpower, determination, thoughtfulness, and perseverance it requires to execute, let alone succeed, the premise of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is handled with a lightness and gentleness that accentuates the goodness found within the story. This is a touching, well-crafted movie that speaks to the power of the dream and the possibility of the impossible or, at the very least, statistically and scientifically improbable. It's a film defined by wonder, by characters who dream, experience, fulfill, and live a goal. But what's so beautiful about it is that the story isn't defined by, and the project isn't brought to fruition because of, money. Instead, it's a goodnatured tale of human ingenuity, perseverance, and faith, the latter being the key. "You can't catch faith with a fishing rod," Jones states, but indeed, the film proves otherwise, certainly not in the literal sense but rather in the mind and heart, in man's ability to succeed, his determination, his willingness to follow through, his spirit of can-do adventure and pursuit of accomplishing the impossible. In Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, faith isn't just a five-letter word, a concept, or an impossible dream. Rather, it's the key ingredient in success, in forming friendships, in discovering love, in learning what it means to live.

There's also the film's personal relationships, including a budding friendship formed over firm conflict of ideas and a love shaped by a shared desire and the achieving of the impossible. The Jones-Sheikh relationship is one of the film's many pleasant qualities, defined by a shared respect and a passion for a shared pastime. As burgeoning friends, Amr Waked and Ewan McGregor share a wonderful screen presence together, bringing an easy, natural, honest tenor to the scenes they share. But the film is largely defined by the romantic relationship that slowly forms between the Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt characters. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen develops between them a smart, confident, even-keeled, honest love story, one shaped, defined, and shaken by real complexities, grounded in believable, challenging, real-world scenarios and genuine human emotions, not contrived cinema fantasies. But then again that's merely par for the course for a film of this caliber. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen confidently constructs all of its elements, deeply and fully, into a greater whole, but it balances everything into a complete package that takes all of its pieces -- big, small, and everything in between -- and brings them together in harmony to form a singular picture, a startlingly touching and complete motion picture.

Director Lasse Hallström shapes the picture with a gentle precision, accentuating the people and the ideas, breathing life into the picture but not necessarily forming it, leaving that to the script and his actors. The movie is beautifully shot but simplistically so, again focusing on the people rather than what's around them. The cast is marvelous, all of the major players contributing seamless, nuanced, and natural performances, defined both by their individual characteristics as well as their interconnected chemistry. Ewan McGregor shines in what is a performance that intermixes the playful and the serious, certain but in a way vulnerable. Whether his evolving stance on the salmon plan, his burgeoning relationship with Harriet, his troubled home life, or his outlook on his own existence, McGregor brings a startling balance to the character, inhabiting his Dr. Jones and giving him a full, complex, life-lived shape that's the definition of a rewarding and exceptional effort. Amr Waked shines as the wealthy Sheikh, injecting his character with an honesty, integrity, and gentleness, crafting a man led by a soul and a passion rather than a bank account and riches. His portrayal of the Sheikh never accentuates the wealth; he finds the character from the inside out rather than the outside in, and it's because he plays a real man rather than a body and mind and soul altered -- for better or for worse, usually the latter -- by wealth is the real key to completing the film and cementing its pleasant, honest, uplifting, hopeful, faithful tone. Lastly, Emily Blunt nicely portrays the complex Harriet, performing the part with an uncanny kindness and an evolving spirit, showing a command of the process of handling the challenges she faces with an inward strength rather than stereotyped emotion.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen's 1080p transfer is gorgeous, another winner from Sony. To be sure, the image is a hair soft in spots, but this is a silky-smooth, true-to-film transfer that captures the picture's various locales with integrity and great attention to detail. Fine detailing impresses with regularity; the image may not be absolutely striking and razor-sharp at all times, but faces, clothes, and natural outdoor formations dazzle with stability and film-like accuracy. Colors are splendidly honest and accurate. Whether dull earthen shades or bright clothes, warm wooden instruments, or accurate natural greens, Sony's transfer brings every element to vivid, picture-perfect life. Black levels are fair, appearing rock-solid here, a slight bit washed out there, and a touch overpowering elsewhere, but a happy medium dominates. Flesh tones, however, appear consistently true-to-life. A few trace instances of banding represent the only real visual bugaboo. Light grain remains throughout, rounding a perfectly good transfer into tip-top shape.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen arrives on Blu-ray with a steady, impressive, but not excessively active DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This audio presentation plays the film's mostly gentle music with rock-solid clarity throughout the entire range, evident even through the somewhat subdued, subtle notes. Atmospherics are nicely immersive and sonically accurate. Gentle rain lightly saturates the soundstage in chapter three, audibly dropping around the entirety of the listening area and supported by accurate but distant thunder. Quieter scenes near the fishing spots offer the calming and serene sound of very lightly rolling waters, countered by a heavy gust of rushing liquid later in the movie which loudly and actively but clearly shoves through the listening area. The only other heavy effect comes as helicopter rotors slice through the listening area with an evident thump-thump sound. Dialogue can get a little lost under these heaviest effects -- that rushing water in particular -- but otherwise it's stable, clear, and focused in the middle. This might not be a sonic powerhouse of a track, but there's no doubt that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen plays with wonderful clarity and stability from beginning to end.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen contains two film-specific supplements and the usual array of Sony previews.

• Miracles Happen: Making Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (480p, 13:07): Cast and crew, in this fairly basic overview piece, discuss the source novel, the story's qualities and themes, casting the lead roles, character traits and relationships, filming locales, preparing for and shooting the fishing scenes, natural challenges during the shoot that actually benefited the film, and the cast's satisfaction with the film and the filmmaking experience.
• The Fisherman in the Middle East: Novelist Paul Torday (480p, 3:14): The author discusses the origins of his novel, transitioning it to film, shaping his characters, the story's tone, and the plot arc.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a gentle, touching, soulful picture about accomplishing the impossible, about determination, courage, faith, friendship, love, and life. It's not so much about fishing as it faith, faith in oneself and in others, in the possibilities, in the potential to unite, to find goodness in success. It's nicely directed and very well acted. It's a light but purposeful outing, a picture that will leave audiences feeling good and believing in the power of man to come together in harmony, under a shared goal and the bond of friendship, never mind in the potential of cinema to tell good, worthy tales. Sony's Blu-ray release of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen comes up a bit short in terms of extra content, but the disc features Sony-typical high quality video and audio. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a charming, well-made, and must-see movie; the Blu-ray does it justice. Highly recommended.