THE KITE RUNNER

8/10

I've chosen not to write about my book reading and reviews on my blog. Mainly because it just doesn't match the theme I have going here but anyway -- I'm not a big reader at all but last April after hearing of the buzz for years I finally decided to just throw myself into THE KITE RUNNER and I was glad I did. It was the most amazing, emotionally entangling read I've had to date. And now that I can finally be the person who says "The book was better..." - I will take that opportunity. Now I'm not saying the movie is bad. It's just lacking and perhaps if I hadn't read the book, the movie would affect me differently. Unfortunately, this is being advertised as a bland heart-tugger which it is far from. The subject matter is grueling, this is not an easy picture to sit through and they tried their hardest to squeeze all they could into the PG-13 rating. It's hard to give the plot away to the point that passes "boring" without giving away the plot elements but just believe me that is an exciting story. Twists abound all over. Anyway, the performances were good but the directing by usually talented Marc Forester just kind of seemed sloppy to me. When something effective was done...immediately something blah would come around and make you underwhelmed as a viewer. It is not completely his fault though because it certainly would have been hard to keep everything from the book into the film version- but something, some kind of magic, is certainly lost along the way. I still love this story and one poignant scene in particular managed to pull at my tear ducts. So I'd say read the book but if your not a reader- it is still a movie worth seeking out because we can all relate to the themes of loss and regret and starting over .."being good again" ahh I'm totally rambling sorry if this review was torture to read PEACE!