The Kite Runner

Director Marc Forster continues to display amazing versatility with this decent adaptation of the popular novel by Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of a former Afghanistan resident (Khalid Abdalla) living in California who must return to his homeland to help an old friend’s young boy, who has been taken by the Taliban. Forster, who jumps from one genre to another, is the man behind Finding Neverland and Stay (a vastly underrated film starring Ryan Gosling). This time out, it feels like he may’ve gone a little too light with the subject matter, but he does draw good performances from his actors, young and old. He also manages to make kite-fighting duels as exciting as Star Wars battles. Abdalla is a great actor (he played a chilling terrorist in United 93), and Forster comes up with yet another moving ending. (His Neverland ending nearly killed me.)