BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Eloquently and dramatically based on the bestselling book.

Roger Ebert (Four Stars):

How long has it been since you saw a movie that succeeds as pure story? That doesn't depend on stars, effects or genres, but simply fascinates you with how it will turn out? Marc Forster's "The Kite Runner," based on a much-loved novel, is a movie like that. It superimposes human faces and a historical context on the tragic images of war from Afghanistan....

What happens back in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) in the year 2000 need not be revealed here, but the scenes combine great suspense with deep emotion. One emblematic moment: A soccer game where the audience, all men and all oddly silent, is watched by guards with rifles. The film works so deeply on us because we have been so absorbed by its story, by its destinies, by the way these individuals become so important that we are forced to stop thinking of "Afghans" as simply a category of body counts on the news.

The movie is acted largely in English, although many (subtitled) scenes are in Dari, which I learn is an Afghan dialect of Farsi, or Persian. The performances by the actors playing Amir and Hassan as children are natural, convincing and powerful; recently I have seen several such child performances that adults would envy for their conviction and strength. Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, as young Hassan, is particularly striking, with his serious, sometimes almost mournful face. (The boy now fears Afghan reprisals for appearing in the rape scene, and the producers have helped to relocate him.)

One of the areas in which the movie succeeds is in its depiction of kite flying. Yes, it uses special effects, but they function to represent what freedom and exhilaration the kites represent to their owners. I remember my own fierce identification with my own kites as a child. I was up there; I was represented. Yet there is a fundamental difference between the kite flyer (Amir) and the kite runner (Hassan). Perhaps that sad wisdom in Hassan's eyes comes from his certainty that all must fall to earth, sooner or later.

This is a magnificent film by Marc Forster, now 38, who since "Monster's Ball" (2001) has made "Finding Neverland" (2004), "Stay" (2005) and "Stranger Than Fiction" (2006). All fine work, but "The Kite Runner" equals "Monster's Ball" in its emotional impact. Like "House of Sand and Fog" and "Man Push Cart," it helps us to understand that the newcomers among us come from somewhere and are somebody.

From an online reviewer:

I read this book a few years ago and loved it. And, frankly, I was worried that the filmmakers might ruin the movie. That silly worry of mine sure was wrong though. I know it doesn't seem possible, but the movie was even better than the book. I think that it was because the act of reading allowed me to put the book down and pick it up at a later time. The movie, however, is right there, in your face, and doesn't give the viewer any reprieve from the compelling plot or the constant tension. I knew the story of course, and during one of the crucial scenes I found myself crying real tears even before one particular awful scene happened. And then I watched it in horror in full living color, knowing what would happen next and understanding that there were no easy answers.

This is the story of a friendship between two boys in Afghanistan. It starts in the 1970's before the Communists and before the Taliban. Life was complex enough then even without the awful politics which came later. Amir was the only son of a wealthy businessman and rather shy. Hassan was the son of a servant and of a lower class social group. Amir and Hassan shared a deep friendship despite the social differences between them and were a team in one of the big events in their town - a kite flying contest. At the very moment of victory though, there is a tragic act of aggression against Hassan which changes the relationship between the two boys forever. Each of the boys suffers in his own way. For Amir, it affects his life forever. All of this is set against an historical background of Afghanistan when it was secular and modern, especially for the upper classes. Women were free to go around unveiled. Books of all kind were available, although, shamefully, boys like Hassan were not taught to read.

Then the world turned topsy turvy. Amir and his father had to flee for their lives and wound up in California. Amir marries, becomes a writer. And then, now, twenty years later, he receives a call from his father's friend who has fled to Pakistan. "You must come back" is the message. This is the time of the Taliban. Life is horrible in Afghanistan. But Amir, now a man, is given the opportunity to do an heroic act. How this all plays out is scary and uplifting and real. I was sitting at the edge of my seat in the movie theater even though I knew how it would all turn out.

I loved this film. The casting was excellent. Filmed in California and China, all of the actors seemed to be Afghanistani and the dialog was in Dari, Pashtu, Urdu and Russian as well as English. I particularly liked the performance of Homayoun Ershadi who played the father with wisdom and strength even when his fortune was reversed and he worked at a convenience store in California and sold merchandise at a flea market on weekends. There is a sense of authenticity throughout. Mostly, though, it was the theme that drove the film, a universal theme of sin and redemption and how a person can have a second chance to go from cowardice to courage.

David Ansen of Newsweek:

If "Atonement" hadn't already been taken, Khaled Hosseini could have used it as a title for his novel "The Kite Runner," whose protagonist, a privileged 12-year-old Afghan boy named Amir, grievously betrays his childhood friend Hassan. Only years later, as an adult, will he be able to atone through an act of considerable courage.

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