Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Lasse Hallstrom turns in yet another overly-pretty, fluffy and cloying piece of entertainment that is pleasant enough due to the two strong romantic leads, but is so contrived that you really needs to shut off your brain entirely to get anything from it. Equal blame must go to Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy for his syrupy adaptation of Paul Torday’s satirical novel--this is the kind of movie that gives film adaptations of popular novels a bad rep.  Beaufoy makes every Hollywood-cliché change to the novel; from making the lead character younger, to playing up the love story, to making the plot more of a personal-journey-narrative rather than a political commentary.  Someday Hallstrom may return to making films that show us human truth rather than pretty landscapes, but I’m not holding my breath.