Movie Review - The Kite Runner

After leaving First Sunday, I made it into the theater for The Kite Runner just in time to see the message on the screen to silence your cell phones, so I was happy I hadn't missed any previews. Being a bit self-conscious about seeing a movie by myself, I normally don't like looking behind me when I walk into a theater, but as I took my seat in the third row from the front, it seemed unusually quiet, so I looked around and saw that I was the ONLY one in the theater. After doublechecking to make sure I was in the right one, I thought "COOL, I'll have the place to myself!" And then I wouldn't have to worry about people talking thru it, babies crying or people kicking my seat. About halfway through the second preview, a younger couple came in and sat a few rows behind me and several seats over. So it was just the three of us who saw the first evening premiere of The Kite Runner at my theater.

First impression would be this movie must really suck, but to give it a little credit, it was showing at a weird time. Normally, an evening premiere would be in the 7ish time frame. Usually 7:15 or 7:30, but this one was at 6:30 and the next showing wasn't until 9:30, so probably the crowd wanting to see The Kite Runner was already in the middle of seeing National Treasure Book Of Secrets or I Am Legend or something and this would be next on their list. Just a guess, though.

Or am I the only one out there who can easily see movie after movie without getting bored?

Anyway, as the beginning credits were rolling, I didn't recognize a single name in the cast and except for it being a drama taking place somewhere in the Middle East, I was having trouble remembering what the storyline was. All I could remember was that when I saw the preview for it months ago, I made a mental note that I wanted to see it as soon as it came out.

There are actually two stories going on at the same time. I know there's a fancy schmancy term for a story within a story, but I don't remember what it's called. ?? (Help me out, please, Dwight.)

The first story is about two childhood friends growing up in Afghanistan in the late 70's. The younger one (Hassan) would do anything for his older friend (Amir) and oftentimes acts as his bodyguard. Amir is a coward and his father confirms this thought in a conversation with a friend that Amir hears, unbeknownst to his father. Unafraid of anything, Hassan comes to Amir's rescue each time.

One day when Hassan is alone in an alley, four bullies corner him and demand that he hand over his kite to them. Amir sees that his friend is in trouble, but hiding in the shadows, does nothing. Hassan takes the beating and as he's walking out of the alley, (once he sees that the bullies have left, first, of course) Amir shows up asking where Hassan has been, as he's been looking for him everywhere and (acting like he doesn't know what just happened to his friend) is excited to see the kite that Hassan has for him. As the two of them walk down the street together, you see droplets of blood on the ground where Hassan was standing and you're not sure whether your hatred of Amir should be justified or not. Amir obviously could not have taken on all four of the bullies by himself, but he COULD have at least gotten help for his supposed best friend. After all, the reason Hassan was in the alley to begin with was because he was chasing a kite to give to Amir.

Flash forward to 2000, Amir is a successful writer living in California and is getting ready to go on a book tour when he gets a phone call asking for him to return to Afghanistan to help find Hassan's son (Sohrab) who has been taken by the Taliban. Amir owes this to his friend, so despite his wife's concerns of travelling back to where he grew up, he goes there to attempt to do the bravest thing he has done in his life.

Just as important as the first story, the second story is about flying kites. The young Hassan is the best kite runner in all of Kabul and in the late 70's, it's a huge event where hundreds participate, standing on rooftops - usually with the assistance of a friend or a parent. When you successfully "cut" another person's kite, that person is out of the competition and the one whose kite is left flying is the winner. Amir's father, Baba, holds the record at 12 kites cut. Hassan has just cut the last person's kite, beating Baba's record, so he chases after the fallen kite to give to Amir so Amir can show it to his father and be proud in his father's eyes.

Back to 2000, when Amir returns to Afghanistan, he is told the Taliban has outlawed kite flying, and instead of seeing streets filled with happy children and skies filled with kites, you see children playing in the rubble covered streets as the "beard patrol" routinely drive by with guns. Donning a fake beard, the clean shaven Amir fits in, which is a good thing since he needs to find a way to sneak in and rescue Sohrab from the clutches of the Taliban.

Extremely long movie, but very gripping and a bit chilling with its true to life scenes. Even though it's about childhood friends, though, this is NOT one to be taking the young kiddies to see. There are quite a few disturbing scenes (child rape, stoning) that are shown in great detail that might end up being traumatic if viewed by little ones' eyes.

Excellent acting, even though I didn't know any of the actors in it. A note that except for the very beginning and the very end, all of the characters speak in their native tongue, so the majority of the movie is subtitled. Basically, if you have trouble reading from afar, you might want to sit closer to the screen.

Hopefully this movie does better in the coming weeks and that imdb does its part in helping spread the word that it is worth seeing. I was actually surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I'm not one for political statement movies, but I think they did a good job with the content.

I found out in one of the posts on imdb that this movie is based on a book and that the book is ten times better than the movie but that it would have to be four hours long in order to capture the true essence of the story, so I'm expecting the dvd to have a lot of deleted scenes. And who knows? I might actually read the book some day.

Yes, it was that good.

Vixy :]