This Marc Foster film based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini tells a very emotional tale about Amir, a well-to-do boy from Kabul who’s haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan. The story is set against the backdrop of historic events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan, through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime. But the story moves across continents and many decades as the historic events suggest.According to what I read the film is very faithful to the novel and dialogues are almost taken literal from the book. Not knowing the story makes this film very powerful and emotional as the way the story is told grabs your attention very fast and takes you to an emotional voyage while watching child non-actors performing very well, perhaps even better than adults. As the adult Amir, Khalid Abdalla creates a multidimensional character that remains believable even in the most melodramatic moments.
Most fascinating is to find that is the first time China allowed filming in its territory to portrait a different country. The Afghanistan scenes were filmed in the Western Chinese desert that borders Afghanistan and you’ll be able to see magnificent scenes of the two countries bordering glorious mountains.
The film has great cinematography and the only thing that bothered me was the pounding and overly insistent score that does not complement at all the emotions that the visuals are conveying. I know the score got an Oscar nomination, but nowadays I’m really wondering what Academy members have in their heads. But in general is a good movie with a strong story that could make you shred a tear or two.
This is sort of an epic movie that is not suited for all audiences as there is a rape involved in the story; also this is not art cinema so I think that adult audiences will enjoy it very much.
Not a masterpiece but I do recommend not to miss this film for the story it tells.
Enjoy!
For the story it tells, I recommend reading the book; in fact, the book is so good that I don't know if I will want to watch the movie.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy "Atonement" as a good adaptation of Ian McEwan's book, but still...I always think that when the book is really good, the movie never completely works for me.
Yeah, know what you mean... always the book is better that a movie as there is more character development and many more details. According to what I read, most viewers and critics find that this is a good adapatation and they do comment about things that are not there, but they do not complain, just comment. Check the imdb to read some reactions.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason think that this time I'm not looking forward to read the book, I feel I had more than enough with the movie. So, yes, I do recommend people to read the book, but if they do not want to read the book, they can always see the movie that will give an idea of the full story told in the book.
Well this time we agree and we do not agree at the same time, that's good isn't??? :)