2011. Dir: Lasse Hallstrom. Starring: Ewan MacGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas, Amr Waked and Conleth Hill. ●●●○○
I hope you don't mind if I waffle a little at the start of this review, can you believe it's been five weeks since I last saw the inside of a cinema, let alone had the opportunity to discuss my findings with you here. I also have the added advantage of having read Paul Torday's novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, dramatised by Slumdog Millionaire's Simon Beaufoy and directed by Swedish helmer Lasse Hallstrom. The novel itself takes an epistolic format with a series of e-mails, interviews, diary entries and Hansard extracts which allow the audience to piece together the events that led to the suggested desert set fly casting. Cinema naturally struggles with translating the myriad of styles into a single movie, although the film nods to social networking and modern communication systems, however the smoothing out of the narrative had the unfortunate side effect of downplaying some of the key themes of the novel.
If the central conceit of establishing the sport of salmon fishing in the mountainous areas of Southern Yemen seems far fetched then you will probably sympathise with Ewan MacGregor the middle ranking civil servant in DEFRA with an expertise in Caddis fly larvae seconded into the project much to his personal chagrin. Perhaps you will just have the confidence that money can buy you anything, including the apparently impossible, like business consultant Emily Blunt. Or maybe there's a third way, maybe all you really need in life is faith - possibly a faith in an greater force, God, if you will - or just faith in the power of idea. It's this third way that is personified by Amr Waked Yemeni Sheikh in the novel, a man who's mere presence changes the way people look at the world, who's softly spoken wisdom nicely counterpoints the stressed actions of our main protagonists and most especially the wheeler-dealer Prime Minister's press secretary Kristin Scott Thomas, in a slightly less sweary version of The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker.
It's perhaps a shame that the film stirs away from the practical difficulties of the project, summarising them in a few ill-tempered rants from MacGregor and an extended section looking at the procurement of the fish, as this reduction of focus (along with other decisions) undermines how important faith is to Waked and to the project as a whole, and as a result lessening the impact. Instead the unlikely romance between MacGregor and Blunt takes centre stage with all the complexities of their personal lives laid bare.
You can't fault the two leads, mind. MacGregor does fusty reasonable well, even if he's fundamentally miscast in a role clearly written for someone much older, struggling at the outset within a failing marriage (and well done to the studio for not writing out that tricky story element). Blunt is as delightful as she always is although the romantic decisions she makes in the final third of the film are hard to keep up with.
Of course both of these performances are blasted out of the movie by Scott Thomas who sets the screen alight every time she gets a chance, her Press Secretary is ballsy and insightful, whizzing from flirtatious to bitchiness and back again often within a sentence. As ever she's the main reason to watch a film, although without resorting to spoilers, her final act is squeezed unforgiveably into a - admittedly quite humourous - punchline.
Once again I find myself drawn back to comparisons with the novel. The central romance is pushed forward whilst the issue of faith is downgraded, the ending is softened to make a joke about ineffective politicians funnier. And I don't want to seem like a like literary snob arguing against the very concept of adapting novels but this is a rare case where I feel Simon Beaufoy his missed the mark, taking an insightful satirical novel and turning into a standard romantic comedy that merely hints at the bigger themes.
Overall I can thoroughly recommend this diverting and pleasant movie, even if I can't honesty say I was stunned by it.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Saturday, 21 April 2012
In, two, three, out, two three (Out this week - 20/04/12)
It's a bizarrely complex week this year with a massive 14 new non-fiction narrative releases not to mention the re-release of Vincenti Minelli's excellent inside Hollywood expose The Bad and the Beautiful and the highly praised Bob Marley documentary from Oscar winner Kevin MacDonald which is getting most film of the week recommendations. This platoon of cinematic offerings oddly doesn't have a clear front runner in either terms of critical reception or box office clout, in the former case there's plenty of decent looking pictures that seem utterly watchable but nothing looks like a must see art-house selection. I'm going to see (Yes, for the first time in 5 weeks) an adaptation of a satirical novel that appears to have lost it's edge in translation, but I'm skewing European in the weekly recommendation and am going for Austrian coming of age movie Breathing as the Runs like a Gay film of the week.
Box office wise I have no idea which film to back, so whilst I consider the options lets have a look back at last weekend. I claim no pride in having correctly guessed the rise of Battleship, with a £2m lead against it's nearest rivals. I expect Peter Berg's board-game adaptation will continue to lead the box office charts, but the battle for the top new release will be between Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Lockout. My £8 is going to the former so I suspect that the romance between Ewan MacGregor and Emily Blunt will just about win out.
Breathing
Just about sticking it's head out in front of the pack is this Austrian picture (side note Austria seems to be having a mini filmic renaissance as this is the second RLAGFOTW from the central European nation this year) directed by Counterfeiters star Karl Markovics and starring Thomas Schubert as a child offender readjusting to life outside, his new job as an undertaker and the guilt and responsibility he still feels.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Read on for frank sexuality, fly casting and a misleading named revenge thriller, as well as the round-up of all of this weeks releases and their trailers.
Elegant slow-paced trailer there that appears to encapsulate the feel of Markovics' debut.
Elles
Juliette Binoche is the magazine journalist working for French 'Elle' assigned to investigate the rise of middle class working girls (Elles) using the oldest profession to fund their University education. The article, and the close relationship founded with one of her subjects, awakens long repressed sapphic desires. Note even the trailer doesn't hold back in the imagery.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Paul Torday's epistolic novel is part political satire - a watered down Iannucci - and part treatise on the power of faith. This big screen adaptation with heavyweight Brit cast list including Ewan MacGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas appears to focus on the love story angle, but I'm still drawn by the unique premise.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Skoonheid
The breakout picture at this years London LGBT film festival is this South African expose of Afrikaaner brutality in Apartheid with Roeline Daneel struggling with internalised homophobia and becoming obsessed with the son of a family friend. The title translates into Beauty.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Fury
Called The Samaritan in the States I expect the name change is in part to capitalise on the publicity for Samuel L. Jackson's little know Nick Fury character who you may know appears in a tiny independent fil coming out next weekend. Tom Wilkinson also stars as the mark in this twisty turner grifter flick.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Hollywoo
I'm not sure if this French trailer looks funny or not, mainly because it isn't subtitled and the release is so limited I can't be bothered to find a better version, but the concept of a dubbing artist trying to meet the "A"-lister she provides a French voice for is quite a cute premise and Jemel Debbouze has been good value in the past.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Lockout
Guy Pearce takes the wisecracking anti-hero role in this thriller inspired by an original idea from Luc Besson or maybe hundreds of B-movies to which it obviously holds a debt, films like Escape from New York, with the key concept of a one man mission to rescue the President's daughter from a high security prison. In space. Some shonky special effects in the trailer though.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Vicky Donor
Somewhat odd looking Bollywood comedy about a serial sperm donor and his later attempts to romance. I expect the hundreds of children he's fathered on behalf of others complicate matters but not so much to spoil the chance of a happy ending.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
11-11-11
Darren Lynn Bouseman's (of the Saw films) cheap looking horror stumbled into US multiplexes (just 17 of them) last November and barely managed $30k, here in the UK without the benefit of the appropriate release date and with only a single showing it's not going to do even close to those paltry figures.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Divide
I've watched the first few seconds of this apocalyptic thriller several times and I have to say I'm a touch confused but apparently you can outrun an nuclear blast. Obviously the survivors will then turn on each other and the living will envy the dead. It's all derivative crap with allegedly Michael Biehn's best ever performance.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Gone
More psycho killers in this US thriller starring Amanda Seyfried in her attempts to prove she can open a film as an escaped kidnappee convinced her sister has also been abducted in order to be horribly murdered. Lots of screaming, untrusting cops and running around in creepily lit woods at night. P.S. she can't this grossed only $9m in the States in January.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy
I had thought this latest adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Scottish drug scene came out last year to unenthusiastic reviews but no. It's come out this year to equally unimpressed ratings. The problem being that however much work is put into a project like this it's always going to suffer from comparisons to Danny Boyle's Trainspotting. Still it's good to see former Hobbit Billy Boyd is still employable.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Transit
What a difference 8 years makes. Do you remember when Jim Caviezel defied all expectations and box office prognostications with The Passion of the Christ but now it's all virtaully direct to video thrillers like this nonsense involving a security truck heist, mixed bags and marital tensions coming to the fore. Mind you at least his career is going better than Mel Gibson.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Elfie Hopkins
And finally the worst looking movie since last months Act of Valor is this British comic horror staring Jaime Winstone as the sleuthing titular teenager who discovers her neighbours are cannibals. Daddy Ray cameos as the local gun toting butcher.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●○○○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Kristin Scott Thomas
Happy Birthday to
Kristin Scott Thomas
51 today
Twenty years ago few people had heard of the Redruth resident with a byline in swapping between English and French language pictures. Then Four Weddings and The English Patient burst her into the limelight. These days she's among the most highly acclaimed bilingual actresses in the World, regularly giving knock-out performances on both sides of the Channel. Next up she'll be finding her inner Alistair Campbell in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Film News (15/05/10)
Cannes is on. The glamour, the glitz, the stars, the sex, the back-stabbing trades and so on. It must be an absolute whirl out there with paparazzi staking out the croisette whilst some has been B-movie actor waxes lyrically about their latest passion project. Saying that the Palme D'or candidates are the most muted they've been for years. Not that this has meant the rumour mill has been quiet - in fact I've picked up on 11 different films that have led news stories in the past week. So without any further delay lets wade into it:
The Tiger
Sounding a little like The Ghost and the Darkness 2, this non-fiction tale concerns a conservationist who is forced to confront a tiger that's got a taste for human flesh in a Siberian settlement. The man versus nature theme is as old as time, but given the main (human) character is having to go against his life's work as well adds a little more potency to the mix. Darren Aronofsky is attached to direct with Brad Pitt tempted by the role (marking the third time they've both been interested in a project a the same time - and hopefully the first time it actually happens) and Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams) developing the script.
That is a tiger in Siberia, people being eaten not including in pic.
Read on for Norma Jean, peirced Channing Tatum, limosines, Mexican, Brazilian and Sudanese gangsters, computer programming, a far Eastern city of love, collectable minatures and misplaced fish.
Blonde
There are two Marilyn Monroe (left) projects currently working their way through pre-production, and of these the more interesting to me is Andrew Dominik's adaptation of her biography written by Joyce Carol Oates. Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James) is planning to seperate Marilyn from the myths that surround her, to fully concentrate on the individual caught in the maelstrom of Old Hollywood. Expect it to be a slow burner with beautiful cinematography and some obvious symbology.
Cheaters
Ron Howard's Vince Vaughn collaboration continues to add cast members, with Queen Latifah signing on for an unnamed role and Channing Tatum as the tattooed and peirced man Winona Ryder cheats on her husband with. Can't say I blame her - he may not be much of an actor, but he does have abs of solid rock.
Cosmopolis
David Cronenburg may be prepping for The Dangerous Method, but he's already set his sights on the project to follow, the adaptation of Don DeLillo's limo set drama (right). Colin Farrell has signed on to play the millionaire losing everything in a 24 period, with Marion Cotillard as his cheated wife.
The Jesuit
This is a new title, about a man wrongfully inprisoned who finds his wife and son are kidnapped by a mexican drug cartel and he must fight to get them back. So far so Man on Fire. But the cast list is looking interesting with Willem Dafoe, Paz Vega, Michelle Rodriguez and Oscar Isaac all signing on - not sure if any of those will be the lead though so perhaps there's another big name due to be added any day now.
Machine Gun Preacher
The Sam Childers (Hell's Angel turned freedom fighter) biopic moves forward with the confirmation that Gerard Butler has been cast in the lead role and that Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon will be supporting. Odd that there's been no mention of a Sudanese cast member yet, and you'd have thought that would be the core of the film. 
Moneyball
Are you still holding out for the computer modelling/baseball picture first conceived by Steven Soderbergh then dropped by the studio on the day filming was due to commence? The good news is that Bennett Miller is confident the script issues have been sorted and that filming will commence later this year. The even better news is he may be casting his Capote alumni Philip Seymour Hoffman in a supporting role. On the left, by the eay, is a baseball - just in case you've forgotten what they look like.
Monsterpocalpyse
Definitely to be taken with a pinch of salt but it's alleged on the croisette that Palm D'Or president Tim Burton will be heading to Dreamworks for his next assignment, to adapt the collectible minitures game (with monsters fighting in a major metropolis). Sound like complee garbage - possibly, but with Burton around it may just be entertaining garbage.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Bill Condon's abandoned project, from the Simon Beaufoy script (it's a humorous look at the fictional decision to create a Salmon farm in the Middle East), has not just been left to disappear. Instead Lasse Hallstrom has stepped in to direct the Kristen Scott Thomas picture, even bolstering the cast with Emily Blunt and Ewan MacGregor. Hallstrom has proved in the last couple of months that he is an extremely hit and miss director, so we'll just have to wait to see which side of the fence this one ends up on.
Shanghai, I Love You
The next in the cities of love short film collections (following the very successful Paris and the still awaiting a UK release date New York) is set to begin principle photography later this year in the beautiful and historic Chinese city of Shanghai (below). Included in the directors attached so far are Jim Sheridan and Gabriele Muccino, which looks more interesting on paper than Shekhar Kapur and Joshua Marston who were involved in the last episode. The next 2 cities planned to locate in are Rio and Jerusalem. They will need to start showing it mind (harumph).
Triple Frontier
Kathryn Bigelow is causing a diplomatic outrage - and I'm talking about Sigourney Weaver's bizarre comments about the Oscar win. Her next project, due to be the second collaboration with The Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal, has been villified by the tourist boards of Argentine and Paraguay who, together with Brazil, form the border of the title. The story revolves around drug smuggling and funding of terrorism so I guess they may have a reason to take offence. Brazil, in a wise move, have yet to condemn the film, which may just mean thats where Bigelow will spend most of her budget!
