As the title suggests, Salmon Fishing In the Yemen is a whimsical affair that turns on the idea of faith. Take a leap, struggle against the flow and the rewards could be bountiful it suggests. By and large, that's what director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) delivers; a bitter-sweet story (heavy on the sweet) as probable as a manned mission to Mars that gives game audiences exactly what they came for. Although, as is Hallström's calling-card, the promising start dissolves in an inland sea of sentiment, there are more than enough delightful elements to keep viewers hooked, line and sinker.

A visionary sheik (Amr Waked) dreams of bringing salmon fishing to his desert nation. Despite the niggling complications of water and heat (too little and too much), his biggest hurdle is convincing a fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) that his idea is neither absurd nor unachievable. The sheik is given a boost when the British PM's zealous press officer (Kristen Scott Thomas) smells a good-news story and latches on to the project manager (Emily Blunt). Salmon fishing in the Yemen is given a green light.

Hallstrom's greatest asset is a terrific cast: Blunt is a hugely entertaining foil to McGregor's arid comic-timing while Scott Thomas is particularly delicious as she steam-rollers her agenda without care or concern beyond tomorrow's headlines. This triangle sets up the film's first, and most watchable, half. As the leads' weaknesses are revealed (his marriage is crumbling, her soldier-lover goes missing), and their emotional bond develops, Hallström drops gears to meditate on faith and destiny. It slips, almost fatally, with the introduction of extremists and the story's unlikely climax.

Yet the ugly duck scenario and the exorcism of McGregor's grey, public-service, lute-playing life is strong enough to pull audiences across the film's fishier elements. A snappy script by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) makes for a rewarding game of verbal ping-pong; hilarious and poignant in the same breath. Whilst Salmon Fishing In The Yemen is not as memorable as it could, or should, have been, the emotional complexities of two restrained personalities is tender, rewarding and with an ample serve of reality. Unexpectedly for a film that trades so heavily in whimsy. But then, look around. Whimsy's everywhere.

// COLIN FRASER
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