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The Kite Runner is a story of friendship, betrayal and redemption.
The much-anticipated film is based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, but the translation from page to screen is clunky.
The film, sad to report, has that TV movie-of-the-week feel about it, all jam-packed with events and obvious emotion.
Under the cinematic circumstances, the fact that the tale is set in Afghanistan is almost beside the point.
In Kabul in 1978, Amir and Hassan are best friends.
Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) is the son of a wealthy man, and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) is Hazara and the son of a servant.
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The boys compete in the city's festive kite-flying competition, and Hassan has a knack for kite running -- chasing down any kite that gets separated from its string.
Hassan is a brave and hard-working child.
Amir is indulged and fairly timid. When some local bullies sexually assault Hassan, Hassan says nothing.
Amir also says nothing, even though he knows who is responsible for the attack.
He takes out his own fear and cowardice on Hassan, and the boys drift apart over the incident.
With the new year comes the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Amir and his father manage to escape the country and the story fast-forwards to California, 1988. Amir (now played by Khalid Abdalla) and his father (Homayoun Ershadi) live in California, where the father runs a gas station. At the flea market where he works part-time, Amir meets the beautiful Soraya (Atossa Leoni), marries her and becomes an author. There is joy. There is also loss. None of it is particularly engrossing.
Hassan, meanwhile, seems to have evaporated, but never mind. An unexpected phone call from a family friend puts Amir on a new journey. Despite danger and Taliban rule and all the rest of it (stonings, destruction, religion police, etc.) he must return to his beloved country to rescue a child. Amir has found a way to right an old wrong.
The Kite Runner has some moving sequences, almost all of which involve the child actor Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, who plays Hassan.
Overall, however, the movie never connects emotionally. There's something false about the storytelling; much seems black and white, morally, and there's a hole where the heart of this thing should be.
It doesn't help to learn that four of the child actors from the movie had to flee Afghanistan for their own safety, lest there be reprisals over the scenes of the male rape. In real life or in reel, let's just file this one under disappointing.
(This film is rated 14-A)