The Kite Runner (2007)

Review Summary

Like the film version of Ian McEwan’s novel “Atonement,” another story ignited by the destructive behavior of a pubescent child, “The Kite Runner” presents a world informed by a variant of original sin. In both, a child’s damaging words and deeds give way to — and seem to foreshadow and somehow even to incite — the larger violence of war. The two stories register very differently, both on the page and on screen, yet what’s curious is how each presents childhood as an already corrupted state that is redeemed only by adult grace. Marc Forster, who previously directed “Monster’s Ball” and “Finding Neverland,” has been soundly defeated by “The Kite Runner.” Despite the film’s far-flung locations (it was shot primarily in China), there is remarkably little of visual interest here; the setups are banal, and the scenes lack tension, which no amount of editing can provide. With the exception of Mr. Ershadi, whom art-house audiences may remember from Abbas Kiarostami’s “Taste of Cherry,” it also lacks credible performances.

— Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

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