Marc Forster seemingly designed his movie, The Kite Runner, for those who read the book. I confess to not being one of them. Considering the number of people who have recommended this novel, I feel the odd-man-out; the movie exaggerated this sensation.

Not that I found the story complex. The tale begins in San Francisco, where Amir gets a call from an old friend asking him to come home and to “be good again.” This quest is the heart of the story. With the phone call, we journey back with Amir to his childhood in Kabul, playing with his best friend Hassan, whom Amir betrays.

As we see the betrayal and its ramifications on the friendship, we also see the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Amir and his father’s flight to America, and Amir’s path to manhood, marriage, and peace with his dying father. All these details, book readers assure me, carefully follow the novel’s structure.

This was precisely the problem with the film. Watching The Kite Runner resembled reading a book report, all details and little emotion. I tired quickly of Amir’s exile in America… the community of Afghans, the wedding ceremony, the father’s illness… because it seemed unrelated to Amir’s betrayal of Hassan and his need for redemption. Having been given the thesis and argument, I failed to see the significance of these details, feeling that they interfered with the film’s heart. As for Hassan, I choose to be vague because his story (he is the title character) carries the emotional weight of the film and thus the reason to see it. It is also his story that earns the movie its “PG-13” rating. These scenes include violent assaults upon children and are not suitable for the young.

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