Given the films pedigree in director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules) and writer Simon Beaufort (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire and the aforesaid The Full Monty) this is unsurprising and the resultant level of quality in this film is broadly compliant with the production talent. Throw into the mix stars, Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas and nothing much can go wrong with the formula. The film also includes some astute political satire which, while not quite the quality of Yes Minister, will do in its absence.

Fred Jones (McGregor), an uptight Scottish anorak employed in the UK government as a fisheries expert, is approached by Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Blunt), an aspiring high flying business consultant, representing a Yemeni Sheikh (Amr Waked) who wants to install salmon in his home town dam. The unlikely proposal is considered an impossibility by Jones, that is until press secretary to the prime minister, Patricia Maxwell (Scott Thomas) seizes on the project as a distraction from the war in Afghanistan. Predictable events ensue albeit in a highly entertaining, amiable manner.

Performances from McGregor and Blunt are fine and of the quality one would expect from them but the film belongs to Kristin Scott Thomas whose sharp witty delivery steals every moment she features in the film.

The cliched but inevitable romantic subplot threatens to get in the way of the fish and political satire in the films last quarter but on the whole this is a very amiable, entertaining movie showcasing everything that is wonderful about understated British humour. It's also better than the book by a good margin!

I'll give it 4 Joans.

Reviewed by Stu Jamieson
DATE

Stu Jamieson is a movie writer and redundant cinema projectionist who has written many more reviews than he has caught fish. His countless hours casting to hula hoops on his front lawn aims to redress this imbalance.