This is a bit lightweight for me, it does feel like there has been too much of the book left out to make any real impact. The film was great until the point where the family flee Kabul, but the rest story was then too condensed and rushed.

VERY disappointing adaptation of a wonderful novel...

Too mild, without enough emotional highs or, more importantly, lacking the lows that should go with horror, war, brutality, exile, rape, death... It was almost a feel-good approach to a series of dark, dark episodes. I've not read the book, but unsur... (read more) Too mild, without enough emotional highs or, more importantly, lacking the lows that should go with horror, war, brutality, exile, rape, death... It was almost a feel-good approach to a series of dark, dark episodes. I've not read the book, but unsurprisingly, it is apparently darker and tells the story in a more hard-hitting fashion.

It's almost a mild famly movie and I note it is PG-13 or 12A in the UK and that seems about right. Perhaps some elements of the story are a bit more awkward for family viewing than normal, but that's the kind of prejudicial approach that keeps people feeling ashamed of being victims in the first place. So, it reminds me of Rabbit Proof Fence in style and somewhat in topic - children in a brutal adult world filled with racism and religious hate. Here, the story is really about the rather dull and introverted central character, and whether and how he atones for his own childhood and the fleeing of his country to America.

Too slow, too long, but still a good film.

I watched the Kite Runner soon after watching Samira Makhmalfaf's at Five in the Afternoon. It does not compare favourably. I totally loved the book, which I didn't put down until I finished it. I was less impressed by the film. The Taliban paedophil... (read more) I watched the Kite Runner soon after watching Samira Makhmalfaf's at Five in the Afternoon. It does not compare favourably. I totally loved the book, which I didn't put down until I finished it. I was less impressed by the film. The Taliban paedophile, true, a character in the book, was even less convincing on film - uncomfortably like cheap propaganda. That worries me.
Quite good I suppose, is how I'd describe it: but really just not good enough.

great book, not sure I could take it as a movie

I never read the book so I can't compare it. The movie is sad but yet at the end the brother does something good. I can tell you, not many movies made me shed a tear. This one is one of them.

The Afghan boys' kite-flying contests are the emotional core of the film, and Forster and his crew bring the camera into the sky and make it dip and soar along with the kites.

I won't deny that the film is sometimes rushed, oversimplified and skimpy on the details of Afghan culture that informed the book. But the tale still takes hold.

Forster's mix of topicality and sensationalism makes The Kite Runner sentimental, not profound.

How long has it been since you saw a movie that succeeds as pure story? That doesn't depend on stars, effects or genres, but simply fascinates you with how it will turn out?