To take our minds off our recent car troubles, N and I picked up our good friend Francis and went to see The Kite Runner. The movie plot closely follows the book’s, and the tale had mesmerized me when I read it on our cruise last year. I had so enjoyed that first book by Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote A Thousand Splendid Suns, that I was waiting eagerly for the movie, and I wasn’t disappointed. Very insightful into the last few decades of Afghanistan’s history, the story was bit slow in the very beginning as it laid the foundation for the plot, but it’s difficult to cram that much detail into a short, two-hour movie. The backstory was essential to the main story, however, giving it flavour, nuance, and life, and the movie moved along very well once underway. With an international cast of non-actors, half in English when Amir and his father move to America and half in sub-titles during the scenes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the movie was poignant, moving and well acted. One of the best films I’ve seen in some time.