Natalie's Reaction

Compared to the novel the movie let me down. Rarely has a movie exceeded the greatness of the novel. What bothered me about the movie was that it seemed so rushed. Events that, in my mind, seemed greater and of more importance were almost fleeting moments in the movie. For example when Hassan serves Assef drinks at Amir's birthday, the moment is over in a couple of seconds. This for me was a very shocking and disturbing moment in the novel but in the movie it seemed to attribute little importance to it. Similarly many aspects from the novel were left out of the movie such as Hassan's cleft pallet. This was important because it shows Babas love for Hassan when he gets him the surgery. The pomegranate tree incident also left a large impact on me while reading the novel. At first I believed that Amir was going to apologize to Hassan for what happened and attempt to mend their relationship. Instead Amir pelts the pomegranates at Hassan in hopes that he will hit him back and therefore Amir can feel better about what occurred. In the movie this scene also seemed very short and of less importance. Rather than Amir asking Hassan to go up to the pomegranate tree like he had in the novel, Amir meets Hassan already up there. The whole scene is over very quickly and did not seem as important as it had in the novel. The directors choice to omit Sohrab’s attempted suicide also greatly changed the movie. By having that scene the reader can clearly see how sad Sohrab is and how affected he is because of what happened. Despite this I did enjoy the movie and I realize that a movie cannot contain every single detail mentioned in the book therefore it was still interesting to watch. One of the biggest differences between the novel and the movie is the point of view. In the book the first person point of view gave us more insight into Amir, his emotions and his constant thoughts. The flashbacks also add to the novel and Amir's description of his dreams give us more insight into his personality and feelings. Due to the omniscient point of view, the movie lacks this factor. As the viewer I believe that we sympathize less with Amir and therefore see him in a different light. An aspect I always find interesting after having read a novel and then watched the film is seeing how characters and locations are represented. The actor playing Hassan was exactly what I had envisioned. He seems so sweet and kind in the novel, and the person they chose to play him had these similar features. I thought they did a great job casting Baba as well. He seems like a strong minded businessman and I believe he played the role very well.