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Reviews Counted:167
Fresh:110
Rotten:57
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Despite some fine performances, The Kite Runner is just shy of rendering the magic of the novel on to the big screen.
Theatrical Release:26-12-2007
Synopsis: Based on the international bestseller by Khaled Hosseini, THE KITE RUNNER is a fascinating historical epic set in 20th-century Afghanistan. In 1978, Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan... [More]
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Shaun Toub, Atossa Leoni
Director: Marc Forster
Hampered by a dull leading performance, Marc Foster and screenwriter David Benioff's adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's hugely popular novel skimps on the book's real value in favor of bland melodrama and absurd dramatics.
The power of the film's key scenes can make you forget the long, long, long trip it takes to get to them.
Mr. Forster has been soundly defeated by The Kite Runner. Despite the film's far-flung locations, there is remarkably little of visual interest here; the setups are banal, and the scenes lack tension, which no amount of editing can provide.
Top CriticIt's the kind of film whose major accomplishment is to make you think, 'Wow, the book is probably really good. I should have stayed home and read it.'
A positive and uplifting story about the kind of interpersonal loyalty that not even a terrorist organization can destroy.
A qualified success.
The film version of Khaled Hosseini's novel is so portentously sincere that you may feel like a cretin for embracing it with anything less than a full heart.
A heartfelt saga of cruelty redeemed by belated love.
An absorbing story in a setting that is both exotic and universal.
The decidedly small-scale finished product doesn't quite measure up to the epic scope of its story. Fortunately, the film's heart remains very much intact.
A film of exhilarating, redemptive humanity, conveying an enduring sense of hope.
The film has its moments of purity and at times they are exquisite (they almost seem accidental in their innocence), but it is the story and its ultimate disingenuousness that overturns the cart.
A memorable and moving drama about the pain of lost friendship, the yearning for forgiveness, and the freedom that comes from making amends.
The silly recurrence of an early-movie villain at the end may make you say, 'Hell to the no!' for the first time, and the same goes for the awkward emotional coda.
Maudlin, implausible and dull.
Armed with a capably hands-off screenplay by David Benioff, [Forster] made a drama as bland and beige as its tasteful palette, whose pacing wouldn’t look out of place in the Sunday-night slot on PBS.
...the most cinematic elements of the novel are the weakest parts of the movie.
Gently moving adaptation by Marc Forster takes off but never quite soars.
Khaled Hosseini’s engaging best-seller cries out for a film treatment on an epic scale. But with his uneven, awards-baiting adaptation, Marc Forster seems a tourist both culturally and dramatically.
At times brutal, at times touching, the movie stands out as one of the better 'prestige' productions offered for cinematic consumption during the waning weeks of 2007.
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