Movie Review for The Kite Runner (2007)

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Review #613 of 365
Movie Review of The Kite Runner (2008) [PG-13] 122 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.25
Where Viewed: United Artists Colorado Mills Stadium 16 & Giant Screen, Lakewood, CO
When Seen: 7 February 2008
Time: 12:50 pm
DVD Release Date: 25 March 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

Soundtrack: Download now from Michael Nowak & The Hollywood Studio Symphony - The Kite Runner (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - or - order the CD belowDownload the Book: Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner

Directed by: Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction)
Written by: David Benioff (Stay) Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini

Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Zekeria Ebrahimi (debut) • Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (debut) • Khalid Abdalla (United 93) • Atossa Leoni (The Florist) • Homayoun Ershadi (Color of Friend) • Shaun Toub (The Nativity Story) • Nabi Tanha (debut) • Elham Ehsas (debut) • Abdul Qadir Farookh (debut) • Abdul Salam Yusoufzai (debut) • Ali Danish Bakhty Ari (debut)

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Click to see photos from the Premiere of The Kite Runner
Click to read the spoiler points for The Kite Runner
Acclaimed director adapts Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel The Kite Runner into a film that doubtfully had inspired high box-office if not award nominations from the day of green-lighting the film. Unfortunately, while the film is thought provoking and engaging, as is often the case in book-to-film translation much of the poignant story that so consumes its readers the film falls short in many ways. For those unaware of the basic elements of the story, it focuses on the life of the lead character, Amir (adult: Khalid Abdalla / youth: Zekeria Ebrahimi) whose tumultuous life takes him and his father (his mother dies in labor) from their beloved Afghanistan to San Francisco when the Soviets invade. The film's story, divided roughly into three main acts, focuses firstly on Amir's childhood life in Kabul where his father is a wealthy and influential business man and he lives in complete comfort with his best friend, the son of their servant, Ali, named Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada). The two are nearly inseparable until a shameful and tragic event on the tails of their sweet victory in the citywide Kite Championships creates a one-sided chasm between them driven by Amir's apparent guilt of inaction. Act 2 reveals the new life of Amir and his father as they've been living in San Francisco under very different financial circumstances and Amir has just graduated Community College and longing to get the hand of Soraya (Atossa Leoni) in marriage. His father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) arranges their marriage, and the two live normal lives, deal with the eventual death of Amir's father, and enjoy the successes of Amir's career as an author. Act 3, then, closes the loop on Amir's life as his father's former best friend and associate back in the Kabul days, summons him to Pakistan and details truths of his and his father's past that force Amir on one, last, harrowing journey back to Kabul, now ruled by the ruthless Taliban, to rescue someone he now knows to be a blood relative.

Granted, no two-hour film can elucidate at story as thoroughly as a novel, fans of the written narrative version will be disappointed to see some of the more important elements missing in the film—elements which, unfortunately, serve the main character well and provide greater insight into his life choices which are absent in the film making much of his decision-making process inexplicable for the most part. Combined with an over-emphasis on the second act, the resulting film, while still powerful and good, lacks the necessary information to understand the evolution of the leading character. There is nothing about the ethical behavior of the adult Amir to suggest he could have grown up from the little kid we get to know in the first act. To illustrate, it's a little like observing the child version of Lex Luthor, and then when you seem him grown up he's more like Clark Kent? What made him finally come around to the good side? While the story is brilliantly filled with life lessons, likewise, it seems not to know in the end what message it is really trying to convey. Is the story about the growth of a man as he comes to face his demons only to find they are now far, far worse? Too much time, in addition to these problems, is spent on Act 2 that adds, in its present incarnation, little to the overall plot. Other than observing the new, Teddy Bear, side to Amir, the second part adds but disproportionately to the story overall. In fact, things don't really get going, movie-wise, until Amir takes that fateful trip as an adult. Sacrificing the romance in Act 2 between Amir and Soraya, would have been more prudent and afforded greater time to get more to the bottom of Amir's trip to Pakistan.

The cast of many unknowns and debut performances, is incredibly great, despite the story deficiencies. The child actors who play Amir and Hassan as boys were both superb with Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada deserving more than his share of the praise. With fewer words and a traumatizing experience, he conveys much of his story through visual cues and facial expressions. There is one particularly memorable scene that illustrates this well. Amir, frustrated by Hassan's unwillingness to stick up for himself, starts tossing pomegranates at his best friend. As the smash and burst on his chest leaving an unmistakable red, pulpy blotch on Hassan's outfit, the youngster up and smashed one on his own face. Without words, he explains it all to Amir. Khalid Abdalla has a tough time with the adult Amir having to play him over, at least, a ten-year span, and trying to convey the dimensions of the character well. He does a splendid job that could only have been better were more of the evolution of his character been given. His father, of course, played by Homayoun Ershadi illuminates the screen with his potent and infectious smile of both confidence and compassion and never revealing the dark secret of his own past. Overall, the cast provides the pulse of this less than complete, heart-wrenching adapted screenplay.

By the final credits, the film's story provides ample topics for debate and analysis, especially into the motivations and emergence of Amir. David Benioff's script is thought-provoking and historically compelling landing The Kite Runner alongside a number of other films of 2007 that utilized the elements of the Afghanistan invasion and subsequent rise to power in the resulting vacuum of the fanatical Taliban—topics mostly avoided by filmgoers, unfortunately, this year.

…flies adrift too far too long.
The complex views of religious fanaticism and the pre-and post Taliban culture of Afghanistan serve to broaden the scope of western understanding of these oft forgot or misunderstood regions of the globe. Marc Forster's direction certainly holds true to many elements of the novel's plot, while adhering too stringently to a balance of the acts of Amir's life when the first and second were far more critical and compelling. Moreover, the narrative of the novel relies too heavily on coincidence and deus ex machina to solve its characters' problems. In the end, fans of the novel likely will find the film less powerful than the book, and people learning from the film alone may feel they don't know enough about what's beneath the surface all the time to really comprehend what's truly going on. The film, therefore, flies adrift too far too long.
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Other Projects Featuring The Kite Runner (2007)
Cast Members
Zekeria Ebrahimi • Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada
Khalid Abdalla • Atossa Leoni • Homayoun Ershadi
Shaun Toub • Nabi Tanha • Elham Ehsas
Abdul Qadir Farookh • Ali Danish Bakhty Ari
Director
Marc Forster
Writer
David Benioff
DVD
VHS
CD Soundtrack
Related Book
Kindle
Review-lite The Kite Runner (2007) [max of 150 words]
By the final credits, the Marc Forster's adaptation of The Kite Runner provides ample topics for debate and analysis, especially into the motivations and emergence of the main character Amir from his shady childhood to adulthood. David Benioff's script is thought provoking and historically compelling landing the film alongside a number of others that utilized the elements of the Afghanistan invasion and subsequent rise to power in the resulting vacuum of the fanatical Taliban. Unfortunately, Forster's direction adheres too stringently to a balance of the acts and the narrative relies too heavily on coincidence and deus ex machina. In the end, fans of the novel likely will find the film less powerful than the book, and people learning from the film alone may feel they don't know enough about what's beneath the surface to comprehend the leading characters' true motivations. The film simply flies adrift too far too long.
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