"The Kite Runner" (2007)

The Good:
When watching a film that relys heavily on child actors to tell a portion of the story, it's always a hit or a miss with the quality of acting. Marc Forster's The Kite Runner is a definite hit. The entire first forty-five minutes or so of the story rely almost entirely on child actors, and the two actors playing Amir and Hassan achieve a level of quality in acting that is rarely found among grown actors. The children have such charisma and such believable camaraderie that you as an audience member can't help but fall in love with both of them.

The Bad:
Although the plot of the story is well-adapted, the heart of the story somehow fell by the wayside in the adapting process. This is a story about living with guilt and betraying one of the greatest friendships a person could have. Once the main character of Amir grew up, I forgot about that essential part of the storyline, and I was bored with the story. It isn't until Amir gets his chance "to be good again" that I regained my interest, because the story went back to the real reason this story needs to be told. The novel had such emotional power, and such a heart to it, that the film is just unable to completely translate that. This takes away from the film significantly. By the time we're asked to feel for Amir and his guilt, I have lost my sympathy.

This is a little nit-picky, but there is one crucial plot-point towards the end of the novel that was completely cut out of the story. While I understand why this step was taken and the film works fine without it, I felt as though it added much to the novel. I think that if they had cut some of the other plot points and kept this one in that the film could've carried much more power.

The film as a whole spent too much time focusing on Amir's marriage and his relationship with his father. The story isn't about either of these relationships, but about the relationship between Amir and Hassan.

Overall: Adapting a story isn't just about getting the plot right, it's also about getting the heart of the story right with it, and this adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's famous novel is missing it's heart.

B