Book and Movie comparison

      People often say that films cannot compare to the original material. This notion is absolute true in the case of the Kite Runner and the film. As a stand alone project, the movie is actually very good. But after having read the novel, I feel that the movie failed to capture the emotional intensity that the novel does so brilliantly. One of the main problems in the movie, in my opinion, is it removed the grittier, more violent scenes. These scenes are hard to swallow but very necessary. The movie essentially edited the entire last act of the novel. The film decided to completely remove Sorayb's attempted suicide and his painfully slow transition to "normalcy." His torturous silence after the event made much more sense in the novel than it did in the movie. Though the transition to America would be hard for any child, it's less believable in the movie. I assume that time constraints affected the decision, and it by no means ruined the film or compromised it. But I did feel it sort of rushed the ending and left some questions unanswered for those that have never read the book. Another aspect that left me confused was the character Assef. Many times he was described as blonde with blue eyes... but in the film, he is very clearly Afghan. I'm not sure if the filmmakers forgot this detail or felt it unnecessary, but I was distracted looking for a "blonde" Assef when the audience should be focused on the thematic material.

It's hard to fully connect to actors when I've already envisioned the character's appearances and gestures. That being said, the casting decisions were excellent. I thought the child actor that played Hassan brought the appropriate amount of quiet nobility, and similarly, young Amir portrayed the pained sullenness that was written so vividly in the novel. Amir's and Baba's relationship in America was also very well developed and extremely believable. I felt that relationship was most faithful to the one I witnessed in the novel. All in all, the movie was enjoyable and left me satisfied with the ending. But in my opinion, it cannot compete with the novel.