Running with kites

I have a confession: I thought the book The Kite Runner was overrated. The beautifully depicted Afghan countryside could not compensate for my utter dislike for the main character, Amir, whose lack of backbone made me put the novel down repeatedly in irritation. Therefore, I was filled with some trepidation at seeing the movie adaptation. ...

Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller The Kite Runner becomes only a passable film in the hands of director Marc Forster and adapter David Benioff (Troy). It pungently evokes 1970s Afghanistan, but too much condensing once Amir and his father escape to America gives the movie an unfortunate herky-jerky quality.

Preteens Amir (Zalenia Ebrahimi) and his loving servant friend Hassan (Ahmed Khan Mahmidzada) bond over stories and competitive kite flying in Kabul. The calm soon shatters, not only from the Soviets’ invasion but also from a brutal crime against Hassan - which Amir witnesses but doesn’t stop. Amir, smeared with shame and jealous of his father’s preference for Hassan, then cruelly pushes Hassan away.

Forster’s previous work encompasses Southern melodrama (Monster’s Ball) and Peter Pan (Finding Neverland); here, he vividly reproduces the western Chinese desert as Afghanistan. Forster sets the tone with the credits, the flowing text enhanced by Alberto Iglesias’ score. An exquisite palate mixes sandy towns, snow-capped mountains and a sapphire sky dappled with colorful flying cloths. The casting is so smart, right down to young boys’ teeth: Hassan has mangled, malnourished choppers, while the more privileged Amir’s smile shines whiter and straighter. The characters even speak Dari.

Once The Kite Runner leaves Afghanistan, Forster’s grip on the film weakens; the midsection feels like a series of rushed vignettes. Amir (now Khalid Abdalla) graduates, meets and marries a fellow Afghan immigrant, and becomes a novelist, all in a rather short space. We learn very little about his and his father’s transition to California or how the past affects him. Therefore, Amir’s return to his homeland 20 years later lacks the necessary sense of redemption, and the climax with the Taliban seems ripped from Rambo.

The Kite Runner becomes airborne quickly. It‘s a shame it can‘t sustain its early heights.