The comedy film revolves around a bunch of ridiculous situations where a Scottish fish expert gets a query from the financial agent of the Yemeni sheikh who started an irrigation project in his homeland and wants to live a river with salmon. The world rejects the idea, but the prime minister needs a story inspired by the Arabian Peninsula, and his press secretary, who calculates that there are possibilities in the salmon. The charming sheikh, his beautiful financial representative can not be overlooked, and Fred, the world, is exposed to possibilities while his wife is in a six-week project in Geneva. Adds a unique lack of social precision, the fate of the soldier, and the Sheikh's adversaries to the complexities.
Hallström's made a wonderful film about the power of faith. Flyfishing in a manufactured trout stream in the middle of the desert is a faith-based activity, declares the sheik who built it.
... just because something seems absurd doesn't mean it can't happen. And just because a film seems to lack surprises doesn't mean it won't take an entirely satisfying turn at the end.
Only Scott Thomas, biting off all her sentences like a piranha, rescues "Salmon Fishing" from being a by-the-numbers romantic comedy; you wish the redoubtable Ms. Maxwell had her own movie.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
March 22, 2012
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.
Everything that happens is horribly predictable, and the tone varies from light and fluffy to over-the-top camp, especially with Kristin Scott Thomas as the cynical British press secretary.
