Film Review: Kite Runner

I don’t tend to watch many films that make their home on Lifetime Movie network. I can only take so much weepy drama, mediocre acting and scripts written in two hours flat without the slightest bit of subtlety or grace. So that is why I am forced to give The Kite Runner, a film based on the beloved book of the same name, a negative review, as it feels exactly like a Lifetime Film, a Lifetime film with a really great production value.

I have read the book and while it is fundamentally wrong to judge films based on their book versions, the film doesn’t hold up to the amazing power of the book. In fact the movie is like reading the cliff notes of some great novel and expecting to be as fully enriched as reading the actual novel. This is not say that movies can’t be better than their book version (Clockwork Orange for instance,) but this film is seriously like watching a collection of filmed highlights from the novel infused with weepy falsehoods that negate the power of its source subject. And, that my friends, is a shame.

The movie tells the story of Amir and his friend of lower class, Hassan. The story begins in Afghanistan and spans countries and time periods. It is a story of a life, of redemption, of finding a “way to be good again.” But, the real power of the story comes from the relationships Amir has with his Hasan and his father (or Baba.) I am not going to go over to many plots points here as the film is nothing but plot points and most of you have probably already read the book.

Marc Forster, the film’s director has always been hit or miss with me. I loved his films Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland, but I have to say another of his films Stranger than Fiction was a miss for me. Stranger than Fiction is not a bad film, but it does not live up to its excessive praise and don’t get me started about the horrible cop-out ending of that film.

But, let’s avoid that tangent and move to a different one. A friend of mine actually mentioned this too, immediately after seeing the film, the visual style in The Kite Runner is so boring and cliché. The camera work is too Hollywood and something is lost in it. Something about the camera’s determined focus and the musical score as well seems to negate the power of the film. Unlike the book nothing in the film can be a surprise since the score insists on playing the role of physic.

I want to avoid sounding sexist and being one of those people that divides film or other art into specific genders. However, with that being said, I have to confess to me the book story was a story of men and boys, and fathers and sons. The movie wasn’t about that. It seemed more feminine, not that is always a negative thing. Some of the power of book is lost on the film, because of an insistence upon weeping sentimentalism and not enough about how Amir learns, even after he has a wife, to become a man and to make his father proud. The film does make mention of these themes, but makes them more Gilmore Girls (a show I admit to enjoying) than something else. That is not to say women are more likely weepy sentimentalist, but in fact the stereotypical women that inhabit the worlds of Lifetime Films are perhaps the women that I am referring to.

Also I can’t help but note, with a bit of irony, how much this film should have allowed us to see more of the violence of Taliban. I know that sounds weird. Especially from someone like me who has in the past argued against excessive violence. But in the scene which I can imagine to be truly brutal of a stoning we are shown very little. Sometimes this is good. Sometimes not showing too much violence is a good stylistic choice. But, this is a film with a goal of showing the real harsh, hellishness of the Afghanistan of the Taliban and realness and perhaps something that would warrant a R-rating would seem necessary here. I imagine there is some studio pressure in this regard and perhaps the good ladies at book club that went to see the film projected up on the big screen are not interested in seeing this reality.

Perhaps I am being too cynical. This film does have some good features and may encourage some people to seek out the book. In fact that is my suggestion with this film. Read the book first and if you have time and worse options for movies, give this one a look. It’s not awful, just extremely disappointing.