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kite fighter, but cowardly in character. Hassan is braver and has a unique ability to sense where a falling kite will land. In a dramatic chain of events, Hassan is raped by bully Assef and Amir neglects to try and save him. The scene ruins the friendship between the boys, both now living in shame for what transpired in the past.
The first act is by far the most appealing part of the film. The two boys who play Amir and Hassan are insistently likeable and their friendship feels genuine enough to sustain our interest. Where I lose touch with the film's narrative purpose lies in the curious middle portion of The Kite Runner which brings us back to modern day San Francisco, where Amir now lives. During this period, he meets a beautiful woman and soon a romantic subplot emerges. After several scenes together, Amir finally gains enough courage to ask permission to marry her. This segment ends with their marriage. I will not reveal the details of the third act, but I will state that a convenient plot device requires Amir to return to Afghanistan, which is now overrun by the control of the Taliban.
There is a direct link between the beginning and end of the film, but I fail to recognize any significant purpose of what occurs in between. Does Amir falling in love give him the courage to finally stand up for what he believes? No, because Amir's motivation to leave San Francisco is later justified in the second plot point by a meeting with an old friend that triggers the third act. The guilt he has forever felt for not helping Hassan has always haunted Amir and the final stages of the film allow him to finally stand up for his friend. So why does the film (and the book) have this awkwardly placed center? If this half hour or so of story was cut out of the film, The Kite Runner would be a very likeable piece of entertainment, but I wonder if this extra piece is trying to bring the story to a more complex level.
I also wonder if the story really has anything interesting to say about what life is like in Afghanistan. Supposedly it is the first published novel written by an Afghan author in the United States, but it feels like such a Hollywood story. Most of the conflict involved in the plot is solved in very simple terms. Even Assef, the initial villain during the film's early scenes, returns in the final act so Amir and him can have a showdown. In a time when Afghanistan and its citizens are being torn apart by the Taliban, The Kite Runner treats that context on far too simple terms.
If escapism is what Marc Forster is going for then the film delivers on that most basic level, but I cannot help ...
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