My Thumb Waaaaaaaaay Up: The Kite Runner

Starring: Khalid Abdalla (Adult Amir), Zekiria Ebrahibi (Young Amir), Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada (Young Hassan), Homayoun Ershadi (Baba)
Co-Starring: Shaun Toub, Ali Danish Bakhtyari, Said Taghmaoui

The Kite Runner is an adaptation of a popular book. I haven't read it, but according to other reviews I've seen, it would seem that the movie leaves a lot out. I supposed including everything in such a sweeping landscape in a two hour timeframe would be close to impossible. I didn't feel like anything was missing, like I did in The Golden Compass. You don't need to read the book to understand the movie.

With that bit of a disclaimer, I proclaim this movie one of the best I've seen in a long, long time! Great story, effective storytelling, incredible cinematography, Oscar-worthy acting, educational, emotional, cultural. It transformed my thinking of the world.

There is one advisory: there are some subtitles. However, the actors speak in Dari (with subtitles) and English between and within scenes so seamlessly that you wouldn't even notice unless you're a geek like me that enjoys the art of the film making almost as much as the film itself. Most is spoken in English; the Dari lends credibility and realism.

As with all of my movie reviews, I'll take care not to reveal too much of the plot and avoid any spoilers. All I'll tell you is there were two pretty big plot twists that I didn't see coming at all. Not on the order of The Crying Game, mind you, but surprising and satisfying.

The setting is mostly Afghanistan spanning from the late 70's to the present. Some scenes take place in the San Francisco bay area. It's the story of two boys in Kabul, best friends, who grow up and take divergent paths in life. We see the art of kite flying is an important part of the culture — who knew? — where duels play out in the sky with the last kite flying becoming a local hero. (I suppose it's the Afghan equivalent of high school football.) The flyers maneuver their kites so that their strings cut that of another and release the opponents' kites. Children, "kite runners", race to find the released kite when it lands and claim it as their own.

As time marches on, the Russians march in, then the Taliban. We get to see glimpses of what life was like for the "normal" population when these societal transitions took place. Kabul changes and grows apart; the boys grow up and grow apart. A perfect example of how all of our lives are so complex, how they intersect with others at random (and apparently random) ways, how childhood experiences linger with us throughout our lives.

What I Liked
• All of the acting is first rate. If Khalid Abdalla, who was also in United 93, isn't nominated for an Oscar, something is wrong. The actors who play the young versions of the main characters are believable and it was very easy for me to transport myself into their world.
• As I mentioned above, the clean transition between Dari and English. I don't mind subtitles, but even if you do, they are kept to a minimum and shouldn't be a reason to stay away.
• Baba, the father, is played by the same actor over the decades. His aging is done well...the hair and makeup crew did an understated job.
• The cinematography of the wide expanses of Afghanistan are breathtaking.
• Set decoration is done so well I wondered if the interiors were even shot on a soundstage.
• Location, location, location. Whoever was the location scout should win an Oscar, too. Some of it was filmed in Kabul, most of it wasn't, but it was hard to tell what was where. I didn't question for a minute that it was all on location in Afghanistan until I stayed for the credits to find out where it was shot.
• There was a little CGI, and I suspect that there were some matte paintings but damned if I could say for sure.

I'd love to see one of those "Making Of The Kite Runner" documentaries. Maybe that will be included in the DVD?

What I Didn't Like
• Honestly, there wasn't anything I didn't like. Really.

What It Reminded Me Of
• The first job I had when I moved to California was with a man from Pakistan. He was pretty Americanized, wearing usual business attire. His brother would visit from Karachi and always wore their traditional dress.
• A young boy, Massoud, hung around the place. He and his parents were refugees from Afghanistan. He was cute as a button, smart as a whip, and fluent in English and Urdu.
• I lived in Irvine, CA, home of the country's largest Iranian-American community. I thought of all the Persians (calling them Iranian links them to the current government which they don't like at all) I knew. The engineers that designed the computers I marketed. The printer who produced (and still produces) brochures for me. The restaurant owners. The elderly woman, who as a young Persian debutante was sent to finishing school in Paris and jetted around Europe, that cut my hair once a month standing on swollen feet all the while telling me of life in Iran and treating me like her son.

The tears I expected to shed in The Savages I shed here. Not like my emotional breakdown in Dances With Wolves, but emotional nonetheless.

I think The Kite Runner does a great job of showing how the average person on the street lives. We have to remember that what we see on the news is a snapshot of the sensational. Like the local news that is filled with the latest crisis of the day and never showing the good things happening in your neighborhood, so too is the national and international news.

The film renewed my faith in mankind, especially seeing that not everyone in Afghanistan is a Taliban or terrorist. It's one thing to know it on an intellectual level, another to see it.