The Kite Runner (**½)
Directed by: Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, Stay, Stranger than Fiction, Quantum of Solace)
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub
Seen: March 2nd 2008
**½ Out of ****
The novel of The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is an international bestseller. I myself have not read it, but a friend of mine was massively impressed with the novel, and went to see the film because of it. She did not, however, think that the film lived up to the book, admittedly something that happens very rarely, but I’ve definitely seen that happen with both Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, and Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. Thus, it’s not a valid excuse for me.
Amir decides to return to his homeland from California when his lifelong friend Hassan’s son, Sohrab, ends up in an orphanage, and needs rescuing. On reaching the orphanage, he discovers that Sohrab has been taken by a Taliban official who “aquires” boys from the orphanage on a regular basis. Through backflashes we are also told the story of Amir and Hassan as little boys, and of Hassan’s excellent skills as a Kite Runner for Amir. In kite battles, Amir was a champion in his hometown, using his kite to cut the lines of other boys’ kites with relative ease, and Hassan then retrieving these kites with a surprising accuracy as to where they will land, in fact, he looks at the kite once and pretty much runs to where it will land, not something to be trivialised in the densely populated neighbourhoods of Iran.
One day with one of these chases, Amir follows to find out what is taking Hassan so long to retrieve a kite, and finds the town bullies brutally abusing and raping Hassan. He does not help him, but hides, never letting Hassan know that he saw what happened. After this the boys drift apart, and their friendship wanes, even after Hassan tries to reconcile with Amir, who spurns him out of his own guilt. Back in the present time, this now gives Amir the incentive to save Hassan’s son from the plight he couldn’t save Hassan himself from. The same bully, now the Taliban leader who has kidnapped Sohrab, has him hidden away, and Amir decides to find and free him.
The story is a harsh one, not easy to digest, but the eventual beauty that comes from it has some sense of redemptive power. I kept feeling that the plot was self-driven, but forced. I felt the same way in Tom Hanks’ The Da Vinci Code, which, even though better produced, was a far inferior film. The feeling that a book is reproduced as opposed to letting the story tell itself is, at least for me, a disconcerting thing when following a story, regardless of how simple the story might be. When the credits roll you are left feeling that only the cold hard facts were presented, not much of the real flesh and meat of the story.
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub
Seen: March 2nd 2008
**½ Out of ****
The novel of The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is an international bestseller. I myself have not read it, but a friend of mine was massively impressed with the novel, and went to see the film because of it. She did not, however, think that the film lived up to the book, admittedly something that happens very rarely, but I’ve definitely seen that happen with both Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, and Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. Thus, it’s not a valid excuse for me.
Amir decides to return to his homeland from California when his lifelong friend Hassan’s son, Sohrab, ends up in an orphanage, and needs rescuing. On reaching the orphanage, he discovers that Sohrab has been taken by a Taliban official who “aquires” boys from the orphanage on a regular basis. Through backflashes we are also told the story of Amir and Hassan as little boys, and of Hassan’s excellent skills as a Kite Runner for Amir. In kite battles, Amir was a champion in his hometown, using his kite to cut the lines of other boys’ kites with relative ease, and Hassan then retrieving these kites with a surprising accuracy as to where they will land, in fact, he looks at the kite once and pretty much runs to where it will land, not something to be trivialised in the densely populated neighbourhoods of Iran.
One day with one of these chases, Amir follows to find out what is taking Hassan so long to retrieve a kite, and finds the town bullies brutally abusing and raping Hassan. He does not help him, but hides, never letting Hassan know that he saw what happened. After this the boys drift apart, and their friendship wanes, even after Hassan tries to reconcile with Amir, who spurns him out of his own guilt. Back in the present time, this now gives Amir the incentive to save Hassan’s son from the plight he couldn’t save Hassan himself from. The same bully, now the Taliban leader who has kidnapped Sohrab, has him hidden away, and Amir decides to find and free him.
The story is a harsh one, not easy to digest, but the eventual beauty that comes from it has some sense of redemptive power. I kept feeling that the plot was self-driven, but forced. I felt the same way in Tom Hanks’ The Da Vinci Code, which, even though better produced, was a far inferior film. The feeling that a book is reproduced as opposed to letting the story tell itself is, at least for me, a disconcerting thing when following a story, regardless of how simple the story might be. When the credits roll you are left feeling that only the cold hard facts were presented, not much of the real flesh and meat of the story.
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