The Kite Runner

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: November 2nd, 2007 (limited)

Starring: Shaun Toub, Khalid Abdalla, Nasser Memarzia, Said Taghmaoui, Atossa Leoni 

Directed by: Marc Forster 

Premise: Set in Afghanistan, a bond develops between a privileged youth and the son of his father's servant based around kite flying. Their relationship fractures when one boy is set upon by toughs during a kite-flying tournament while the other boy does nothing to help his friend. They reunite years later after the Taliban is removed from power.

[Reinhold]

This film could have been much better than it was if the director had spent a little more time connecting the characters (especially the children) to the world around them. I have not read the book but I feel like there has to be much more to this story than was told on screen. the kites are cute devices but the mise-en-scene is pretty much disposable for so much of the film... the majority of it reads like a high school paper.
i've seen better performances from the lead actors in other films but none of the adults really stand out here. The soundtrack also killed more than a few scenes, some of which were already dying from terribly light, oddly paced, and unpoetic montages.

Aside from Jeremy Irons's Iranian doppelgänger, there just wasn't much that kept me interested.