Over a week ago Marcia and I watched “The Kite Runner”, a movie based on the BOOK by Khaled Hosseini. The movie stars Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Shaun Toub, Atossa Leoni, Zekeria Ebrahimi, and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada.
From Amazon.Com, here is the plot description:
Amir is a young Afghani from a well-to-do Kabul family; his best friend Hassan is the son of a family servant. Together the two boys form a bond of friendship that breaks tragically on one fateful day when Amir fails to save his friend from brutal neighborhood bullies. Amir and Hassan become separated and as first the Soviets and then the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan Amir and his father escape to the United States to pursue a new life. Years later Amir now an accomplished author living in San Francisco is called back to Kabul to right the wrongs he and his father committed years ago.
As everyone has been saying, the two boys that play Amir and Hassan in their early years were impressive. I also found it very impressive on how they made Amir’s father (played by Ershadi) look through the years. Early in the film they had him dressed in such a manner that he looked very healthy, in very good shape. Yet as his character gets older, you can see him becoming thinner and more frail. It was done very subtly and very well. Most impressive.
After reading the book, the movie seemed rushed. Everything seemed to happen very quickly. They hit all the major plot points, leaving nothing out, and therefore had to run through them quickly or it would have been a 3 to 4 hour movie (it was a little over 2 hours as it was). In many respects that was good. It kept things moving so there were no sections that were dragging or lacking. I am sure those that hadn’t read the book could appreciate that.
Overall I found it to be a good movie adaptation of a very good book. But I still recommend the book first.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I read This Book Nice one