The Kite Runner

Last night, my Strong Words co-host Tim and I went to the opening night ceremony for the Chicago International Film Festival downtown at the beautiful Chicago Theater. The ceremony kicked off with a red carpet gala* and a tribute to Roger Ebert.** After the presentation to Ebert, director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Stranger Than Fiction) and actor Khalid Abdalla (United 93) came out to speak about the film and the intriguing source material. They then introduced Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini who had some touching words to say about Afghanistan and how we should not forget them over there, because above all they are people, too. Then, a representative from the festival came out, told us to shut off our goddamn recording devices and the (soon-to-be playing on ABC Family) movie began.

I know lots of people who have read and have loved The Kite Runner. On paper I imagine it’s hard not to like. It’s a gripping story and has its fair share of complex characters and deeply intense situations. On paper I’m sure each character has a past and a reason for behaving and acting the way they do. This does not translate well to the screen.

For one, the soundtrack is pretty messed up. The score by guitarist/composer Alberto Iglesias (whose score for the 2005 film The Constant Gardener is amazing) is a very mixed bag. The music is so reminiscent of a straight-to-DVD movie at times that it is really distracting. A great score is one that only forces you to recognize it upon repeat viewings and enhances the dramatic depth of any given scene. A score that detaches you from the story is one that needs to be re-vamped or simply dropped altogether.

Additionally, this movie is all over the place thematically. I admire a film that wants to be more than it really is, but this film is really trying too hard to one-up the source material. It reminds me at times of The Notebook, where there’s a bit of comedy, some sweet-natured ribbing, some brief, intense action, lots of extended melodrama, and it’s constantly trying to make you cry/think profoundly. Now, if Marc Forster had committed to all these different takes, I would commend him on a brilliant movie, but instead this all just seems like a decently managed cluster-fuck.

However, the main reason is that this is a very defined 3-act story and it takes so much time setting up characters in act 1 that are virtually lost throughout the rest of the story. For instance, the character of Rahim (distinguished television actor Shaun Toub) is developed as a very sympathetic character who will eventually lead our main character Amir to write the story that makes him a published author. Rahim returns in the third act, but only for a brief scene and during the climax it is discovered that he “has left us” without any further explanation. It’s a real shame, because Shaun Toub’s brilliant performance is essentially wasted.

That is one thing I can say with gusto about this movie. There are some wonderful performances, even in roles that are severely under-developed. I’ve always enjoyed Abdalla’s performance in United 93 as the loyalty-torn terrorist who flies the infamous plane. He’s quite engaging in this film. He handles all the concentrated melodrama with subtlety and brings you inside of Amir’s thought-process. We see Amir as a young, spoiled child, a college graduate, and a doting husband and Abdalla makes the transition believable.

However, the performance that really sticks out is that of Amir’s “Baba” played by Homayon Ershadi. This man should be nominated for an Oscar. He’s tremendous. The character is well-written (the dialogue by screenwriter David Benioff is often pretty sharp), but there is an intensity in Ershadi’s eyes as both a well-to-do man in Afghanistan and a gas-station clerk in American that is hard to miss. He exudes class and brings a lot of quiet dignity to this movie. Amir and Baba’s relationship is really the saving grace of the film.

And actually, the second act of the movie is very strong. All the scenes that take place in America and a handful of scenes that take place in Afghanistan and Pakistan are expertly crafted. There is an extended kite-flying competition in the first act that leads to an unimaginable act of violence to a child that is handled very well. Inversely, the scenes late in the movie (particularly those involving Amir and the taliban) are very fake and stale and sputter on emotional depth. They seem tacked on for the purpose of audience approval, like, “Oh, look at how much the son is like the father,”*** or “when is Amir going to tell the old, ignorant general off.” This movie started as an intimate portrayal of a caste-crossed friendship and an intriguing father-son dynamic and became, as I eluded to in the first paragraph, an ABC Family movie.

Though I haven’t read the novel, I imagine there will be more than a few people disappointed with Hollywood’s adaptation of The Kite Runner. Before the film Khaled Hosseini spoke to us about not forgetting the people of Afghanistan, but said nothing of how Marc Forster made a film that people will struggle to remember five years from now.

*A red carpet gala that Tim and I couldn’t have been less interested in. We went to Wendy’s as people gathered around to see celebrities they didn’t recognize anyway.

**It was really touching to see Roger Ebert on stage. His tribute was the highlight of the evening as he spoke through his computer and was assisted by his loving wife Chazz. Celebrities paying tribute to Ebert included Harold Ramis via satellite (who was actually watching Knocked Up at the time), Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Will Ferrell, Marc Forster (in person) and Kevin Costner, who praised the man for being both a passionate film-goer and a brutally honest critic. Ebert is having another round of surgeries this coming December.

***SPOILER ALERT: The “oh look at how much the son is like the father” moment is this: early in the film, Amir’s best friend Hassan sticks up for Amir by aiming his slingshot at a band of teenage bullies. Later in the film, Hassan’s son Sohrab aims a slingshot at his Taliban captor who just so happens was one of the teenage bullies from act one. We are told that this kid has been held by the Taliban for a long time. So in addition to being a pretty trite scene, all I could think was, “HOW DID THIS KID GET A FUCKING SLINGSHOT IN CAPTIVITY?!”