Movie Review Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman 

Release Date July 31st, 2009

Published July 30th, 2009 

Comics have their own idiom, a way of speaking that is more often than not aggressive and abnormal. Words are their weapons and they wield them with particular expertise. Listen to comedian Patton Oswalt, a shambling, unkempt often alcohol infused comic whose word use is as precise and exacting as your average marksmen is with a high caliber rifle. The brain of the comic is different always, searching at all times for the absurd in the average, that detail that they can see that the average person misses. That brain gets a thorough and exacting examination in Funny People, Judd Apatow's adroit, mature comedy of penis jokes and honest to goodness pathos.

Adam Sandler is the star of Funny People playing a variation on his real life superstar career. His George Simmons is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to movies like Mer-Man where he plays, you guessed it, a half man half fish and Re-Do where Sandler's soft ball like skull is placed on the body of a baby by cheesy CGI. You can sense the shame he feels over these movies, made only to line his pockets, and purchase cars he never drives and a large, Xanadu-esque mansion that he doesn't need, and one can't help but wonder if the shame applies in real life to dreck like Little Nicky or Billy Madison. Probably not, but I can dream.

The shame can be seen in George when he see's himself worshipped in the eyes of his new assistant Ira (Seth Rogan). Hired to help write jokes so George can go back to where he feels most at home, the comedy stage, Ira becomes George's only real friend, even if he won't admit it. It's a forced friendship with young Ira carrying most of the burden especially after George reveals he has a rare blood disease and may soon be dead. That's a lot for Ira to carry but he does carry it and soon Ira begins to develop his own talents and find his own comic persona through the mirror of George's age and and hard won wisdom.

Outside of his wealth and privilege, George's life is empty and impending death has only magnified the void. He now longs for all the stuff he took for granted as a younger man, things family and children. Ira helps George reconnect with his parents and sister and even a few of his comic 'friends' who are more like fellow former hostages of some unknown captor. They aren't friends, they just share the same trauma it seems and that bonds them.

The one person George really hopes to reconnect with however, is Laura, the only woman he ever really loved. Laura is now married and living in San Francisco. She comes to George after he reveals his illness and the reunion is emotional in the way one might talk to someone who dying, an exaggerated pseudo-truth that takes conversational reality to a heightened emotional realm. Yes, Laura loved him once and, in his dying state, she forgives him his indiscretions of the past but is he really the love of her life? That could just be comfort food for the dying.

Well, George will find out if Laura is for real. The last 45 minutes of Funny People is dedicated to George surviving his illness and deciding to chase the life he thinks he always wanted. What happens then is for you to discover but thanks to the exceptionally smart and true writing and direction of Judd Apatow you are in for something funny and unexpected. For those trained by The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up to expect a lot of foul humor, your training comes in handy. Apatow's verbiage is as scatological and unapologetically foul as ever. The difference is the level of sophistication in the way these words are used. Comics use foul language in such a secondary, comfortable manner that it's less natural when they don't use them.

Adam Sandler has shown in the past that beneath the juvenile mask is an immensely talented actor. He simply cannot often enough restrain his id and allow that talent some time in the sun. In Funny People the mask is off and the talent shines like never before. His George is a stunningly bitter, brusque and off-putting guy who makes no apologies for being repugnant. He is fully conscious of his disgust for himself and in finding death he turns that disgust toward whatever human target is close by. As in his shame for his movies, George loathes the people who love them as much as she loathes himself for making them love him. He lives the old Groucho Marx maxim "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member".

Sandler's performance in Funny People is so raw and remarkable that you must wonder how true it all is to the real life of Adam Sandler. Thankfully, in real life Sandler appears to be happily married with children and close friends. It's very likely however, that Sandler knows a George Simmons and shares a deep sympathy with him. Sandler comes at this role with such ferocity and authentic self-loathing and contempt for the world that it just feels real. Then there is the blurring of the lines when George/Adam criticizes his terrible movie roles and that blurring of the lines becomes an uncanny valley between real life and the funny fiction of Funny People. 

As for Seth Rogen, I loved how Rogen's Ira represents all the hope and joy that has seemingly slipped away from jaded George and the way that Ira's youth and enthusiasm enlivens the mentor-student relationship of Geore and Ira. Rogen plays Ira as his usual foul-mouthed man-child, the persona he has perfected in his short but fast rising career. However, Rogen and Apatow take great care to make Ira the heart of the story and use the character as a mirror to highlight the best and worst of George while deepening both characters through their growth together as friends and colleagues. It's a dynamite dynamic and the chemistry between Rogen and Sandler is outstanding. 

With Adam Sandler delivering a career best performance and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow showing newfound maturity and complexity, Funny People becomes one of the best movies you will see all year. Funny People is also another maddening symbol of how incredibly talented Adam Sandler can be when he wants to be. It makes me dislike Sandler more when he makes terrible comedies because I have seen a movie like this and I can see how talented he is. It's frustrating to watch him make some of the worst movies in the world when he's capable of making movies like this. 

Movie Review Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) 

Directed by Dean Parisot

Written by Judd Apatow, Nicholas Stoller 

Starring Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins 

Release Date December 21st, 2005 

Published December 20th, 2005 

Remakes are an inherently lazy project. No matter how well made and recreated they are, remakes are  still telling someone else's story and making a profit on it. Laziness is the hallmark of the remake of 1977's Fun With Dick and Jane. With a talented cast including Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni and a script polish by the very funny Judd Apatow, Fun With Dick and Jane is an all the more depressing effort for the talent involved.

Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) has a great job working in corporate communications for a massive corporation called Globodyne. Things are just about to get even better for Dick when the company CEO, slimily portrayed by Alec Baldwin, decides to promote Dick to vice president and put him on TV to talk up Globodyne's latest financial numbers on a Moneyline-esque cable show. Unfortunately as Dick is putting a smiling face on the numbers the stock tanks live on the air. Dick, as the new face of the company, is completely screwed. The CEO has bankrupted the company, including all the severance and pension funds, and is in the wind, leaving Dick and the company's chief finance officer (Richard Jenkins) to take all of the heat.

This could not be worse timing for the Harper family because Dick's wife Jane (Tea Leoni) has just quit her job as a travel agent to spend more time with their son who is being raised by the nanny (the kid had even adopted the nanny's own broken English accent, in an ugly, awful gag).  Now with both Dick and Jane out of work, and Dick a virtual pariah in his chosen field, the family faces losing all of their accumulated wealth and their home.

After unfortunate attempts by both Dick and Jane to work at new jobs, Dick at a Wal-mart clone and then as a day laborer, in yet another awful gag, and Jane as an aerobics instructor and product tester, the frustrated couple turn to armed robbery to solve their money troubles. Using their son's toy weapon and the rationalization that they were screwed by the system, the couple sets about robbing convenience stores, coffee shops and eventually even an attempted bank heist before finally turning to revenge against the CEO that put them in this predicament.

Fun With Dick and Jane fails because director Dean Parisot and writers Judd Apatow, Nicolas Stoller and Peter Tollin fail to establish whether they are attempting broad slapstick or dark satire. Most of the film plays to star Jim Carrey's strength, broad physical comedy. However, the story of a family losing everything and turning to desperate measures to keep their home is not a story that lends itself to big slapsticky laughs. Thus, the film fishes around searching for laughs in broad set pieces unable to reconcile those with the film's dark subject.

The filmmakers try everything from funny costumes (the couple dressed as Sonny and Cher with Carrey as Cher) to movie parody (Dick and Jane driving a stolen car into a storefront dressed as the Blues Brothers), to irreverent racial humor, but nothing connects with anything more than mild amusement. And, the racial humor is downright offensive. Watching it you don't laugh as much as you squirm in discomfort. 

Director Dean Parisot was the talented director of 2000'sGalaxy Quest, a good natured ribbing of the Star Trek series. There is nothing groundbreaking about that little movie but it hits its target well with good-natured parody. Parisot may be the wrong director for the much darker Dick and Jane in which he irritatingly attempts to force broad comedy out of narrow material. Parisot never finds the right angle on the film's corporate satire and fails miserably in establishing why Dick and Jane must turn to crime in order to survive.

The corporate scandal that costs Dick his job is merely a quick way to get him out of a job so we can get to the supposedly funny attempts at crime. There are a couple of unconvincing scenes of both Dick and Jane trying to work low paying jobs and failing miserably but these scenes fail to help us understand why they must turn to crime. We can feel the plot forcing them toward crime because the crimes are where the supposed comedy is and the filmmakers show their desperation to get through a few setup scenes so they can get the stars into their funny costumes.

Because Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni are such terrifically talented comic actors there are a number of solid laughs in Fun With Dick and Jane. A scene where the couple commit a home invasion robbery dressed in black ninja gear and voice disguisers is funny for the way the couple are like children playing with new toys. Another scene where Dick and Jane ponder their situation while sitting in the unfinished hole where their new hot tub was to be shows each actor's ability to connect with us on a sympathetic level.

Dick and Jane by the standards of decent society aren't good people. They commit serious crimes that are humorously treated by director Dean Parisot but we are never allowed scenes that might help us forgive them their crimes. Simply saying 'it's just a comedy' does not excuse the fact that our protagonists are unpunished criminals. The 1977 version of Fun With Dick and Jane, I'm told, established its heroes as Robin Hood outlaws whose crimes have an undercurrent of social conscience. Yes they were robbers, but when they knocked over banks they also attempted to burn the debt records of other troubled families so that maybe they to could be debt free.

No such moralizing in the new version where the motivation is solely material and selfish. The modern Dick and Jane are concerned about maintaining their social status and regaining their material wealth. A scene where Dick and Jane retrieve their LCD big screen television using some of their ill-gotten gains is played as a moment of triumph with their young son celebrating wildly. I guess, like the nanny, that television was another parent to the kid, which is yet another bit of sardonic humor the film fails to capitalize on.

Spoiler warning!

When at the end our heroes target Baldwin's corporate criminal and end up turning Robin Hood and stealing his money and giving it back to the employees he screwed, we are supposed to admire them. But you can see the plot gears turning as the filmmakers try to redeem these lost characters with one act of deus ex machina, the hand of god, putting everything right with the world in less than 10 minutes screen time.

Fun With Dick and Jane ends with a dedication to the corporations like Enron that have been subjects of the biggest financial swindles in history. Unfortunately, what was intemded to play as an ironic thumb in the eye of these corporations comes off as more of an honest thank you for inspiring this film's failed ideas.  Fun With Dick and Jane never develops into any kind of satire of corporate scandals. The corporate crimes in the movie are a mere backdrop for the flailing slapstick physical comedy. 

Fun With Dick and Jane is yet another sad, lazy Hollywood remake. The work of slacking geniuses picking up paychecks rather than actually making a funny movie.

Movie Review Full Frontal

Full Frontal (2002) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Steven Soderbergh 

Starring David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener

Release Date August 2nd, 2002 

Published August 1st, 2002 

Whenever a director tries to do something that is stylistically or thematically different from the Hollywood norm, he or she is to be commended. Even when that effort is a failure. Movies as varied as Hal Hartley’s monster fantasy No Such Thing and Todd Solondz’s multilayered Storytelling are examples of filmmakers on the edge and falling over. Director Steven Soderbergh, much like his indie brethren, made his movie Full Frontal with great ambition. Unfortunately for all the style, there is no substance.

A film about the interconnected lives of Los Angelinos in various levels of the entertainment industry, Full Frontal stars Julia Roberts because hers is the biggest name in the credits. In reality it’s supposed to be an ensemble, but I dare anyone to watch it without thinking of what Julia’s character is doing when she’s not on screen.

Blair Underwood, best known for TV’s "L.A. Law," plays an actor in a movie in which he plays an actor. Roberts is Underwood’s co-star in the movie. Underwood’s struggling actor is carrying on an affair with the wife of one of his writing partners. Catherine Keener is the wife and David Hyde Pierce the partner.

Underwood’s other partner is played by Enrico Colantoni. His character is also an actor and director, currently working on a play called The Sound and The Fuhrer. The play is a modernist take on Hitler, imagine Hitler as played hysterically by Nicky Katt, as a self involved artist who breaks up with Eva Braun because he has too much stress at work and doesn’t have time to give her proper facetime. Hitler needs his space. Katt gives the film's funniest performance in the film's least necessary subplot.

Actually there would have to be a plot for there to be a subplot. Steven Soderbergh created Full Frontal as an exercise in style and acting virtuosity. Unfortunately he forgot to give the actors a plot to focus their seemingly improvised dialogue. Occasionally the improv works for some laughs but more often it’s almost scatological, actors with no focal point simply pontificating until they can find an interesting insight or humorous observation, each of which are few and far between.

Full Frontal has the feel of an unedited film school project, with an experimental director instructing self involved actors to be more self conscious. It might make for an interesting exercise but not a very entertaining movie.

Movie Review Frozen River

Frozen River (2008)

Directed by Courtney Hunt

Written by Courtney Hunt 

Starring Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Michael O'Keefe 

Release Date August 1st, 2008

Published January 29th, 2009

There has been a bit of unintended zeitgeist capturing at the movie theaters recently. You have Clive Owen battling evil bankers in The International and Isla Fisher fending off creditors in Confessions of a Shopaholic. But the movie that may be the most on topic and of the moment is one that few people have heard of and fewer people have seen despite a slew of a awards nominations.

Melissa Leo is Oscar nominated for her role as a single mother named Ray in Frozen River. Ray's dirt bag husband has just absconded with their savings for a gambling binge. He won't be back. This means she won't be able to make the payment on the new double wide trailer that was to arrive that day. It's headed back to the lot.

Ray has two kids, 5 and 15. They have so little money for food that one morning breakfast consists of popcorn and Tang. When Ray see's her husband's car at the local bingo parlor, on a local Indian reservation on the border between New York and Canada, she thinks maybe he's still in town. Instead she meets Lila (Misty Upham) who took Ray's husband's car after he left it at the bus station with the keys inside.

She didn't want just any car, this car had trunk space and an automatic opener, ideal for her job smuggling illegal Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants across the border from Canada to the states. In need of cash Ray goes into business with Lila and a dangerous situation develops as the two desperate women risk everything for the modest comforts a little cash can provide.

Frozen River comes from writer director Courtney Hunt and in these harsh economic climes it may be the most of the moment movie out there. Not that all poor people turn to human smuggling when things get tough. But, there are desperate, aching, underemployed people and undernourished children all across this country. Frozen River captures the desolate sadness felt by millions as jobs dry up and money goes from tight to nearly non-existent.

Melissa Leo is extraordinary in conveying the determination of a drowning woman willing to risk her life and anything else to keep a roof over her kids heads. She goes without food for a few days at a time. She works a thankless job at sub-par pay. When an opportunity for a quick 12 hundred dollars comes her way she isn't about to get prideful over criminality or moralistic about the law.

If you can't recognize a little of Melissa Leo's Ray somewhere in your life, even if it is just that nice lady bagging your groceries at the store, you live in some kind of dream world. This kind of desperation is eating at the edges of middle and lower middle class America across the country. No movie has captured this nearly as well as Frozen River.

That maybe why the film is so little seen. People tend to go to the movies to escape their problems. Frozen River is a reflection of the problems felt by so many and the images are troubling and heartbreaking.

Movie Review Frozen 2

Frozen 2 (2019) 

Directed by Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck

Written by Jennifer Lee 

Starring Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff 

Release Date November 22nd, 2019

Published December 6th, 2019 

Two weeks in theaters and Frozen 2 has single handedly revived a sleepy North American box office. To say that Disney has a magic touch with sequels and familiar I.P is not saying much, they’re the master of wringing every last dollar out of their properties. What perhaps sets Disney apart from other companies that increasingly rely on well known properties rather than risking money on new developments, is that Disney trusts creators more. And if that doesn’t work, they can amp up the marketing budget. 

Frozen 2 is a strong example of trusting their creators. By any account of the first Frozen, there did not appear to be much of any sequel potential in the story of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, at least not theatrically. In a cynical world, Disney could spin romantic, Y.A tales of the love adventures of Anna and Elsa for infinity on the straight to video market. But Disney has grown ambitious since the Toy Story movies proved there was an appetite for sequels in theaters as opposed to the video market that Disney owned for the better part of two decades. 

The creators of Frozen did not rest on the ease and familiarity of the characters of Anna and Elsa by feeding the need to pair Elsa off romantically. That was a natural storytelling alley but the filmmakers sought an adventure that would be more ambitious and capitalize on the strengths that Idina Menzel fueled with her remarkable voice and the original screenplay had given us an Elsa beyond the need for her to have a Prince. 

The original Frozen was an adventure story and the filmmakers knew that an adventure story was where they wanted to go again with the sequel, even if it didn’t necessarily have a natural jumping off point from the original story. The clever idea here was to investigate the back story of Elsa’s powers as it related to the deaths of her parents and the history of the Kingdom of Arendelle which it turns out is darker than we’d ever suspected. 

The story of Frozen 2 has Elsa hearing a voice that drives her to seek out a magical forest locked behind an enchanted mist that she can access because of her powers. Naturally, Anna (Kristen Bell)  insists on joining Elsa on the journey along with Olaf (Josh Gad),  Christoph (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer pal Sven. Together they will discover the spirit of the elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. There is a fifth element and that is at the heart of the mystery of Frozen 2. 

The story is wonderfully told with big, Broadway style musical interludes that help the story along. While the first film had a surefire pop hit in Let it Go, the makers of Frozen 2 have boldly chosen not to concern themselves with pop hits and have gone solely for songs that help drive the story. It’s a shockingly uncommercial choice and it gives Frozen 2 an even stronger independent identity from its corporate origins. 

The voices of Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell have only grown stronger and more confident in the roles of Elsa and Anna. The comfort in their vocal work lends authenticity to the characters. The same could be said of Josh Gad’s Olaf who rounds into the big beating heart of the Frozen franchise. Olaf, while remaining a predominately comic character, has moments of genuine emotional power in Frozen 2 as he comes to stand in as an avatar for the youngest audience members of the Frozen fandom. 

Olaf is very funny and the youngest audience members will absolutely adore him as they did in the original. Gad carries the comic burden of Frozen 2 while facilitating the other characters to linger in more dramatic adventures. Much of the success of Frozen 2 can be attributed to the laughs brought on by Olaf underlining the action of the other characters who are sprinting toward more dramatic and life changing adventures. 

In some ways, Frozen 2 is actually superior to the original Frozen. The characters are more fleshed out and relatable. Elsa is more human and relatable than in the original and the music explores her depths in ways that Let it Go and the other original Frozen songs could not. The creative team of Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee have also expanded the visual palette of the Frozen universe with daring visuals that include even more gorgeous explorations of ice and a horse made of water that is one of the most beautiful pieces of animation in this young century. 

Frozen 2 has that unique ability to appeal to children with stories of wonder and necessary lessons about life and family while also reaching adults who can appreciate the visual mastery and the wonderful characters who have an adult accessibility. It’s rare to see that combination of traits outside of Disney’s partners at Pixar but Frozen 2 achieves it. Frozen 2 is the number 1 movie in America, and the rest of the world, because of those accessible traits. 

Movie Review: Things Behind the Sun (2001)

Things Behind the Sun (2001)

Directed by Allison Anders 

Written by Allison Anders 

Starring Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann 

Release Date January 24th, 2001 

Published June 26th, 2001 

There is no more damaging crime in the world than rape. A victim of rape in most cases will deal with that trauma the rest of their lives. How do I know anything about this? I have two female friends who were victims of date rape; raped by men they knew and thought they could trust. The pain on their faces when the subject of intimacy comes up lets me know more than I could ever express about the horrible trauma of rape. That same kind of pain is brought home in a very deep and profound way in Allison Anders' Showtime television project Things Behind The Sun.

Things Behind the Sun is the story of an up and coming rock star named Sherry (Kim Dickens), who at the age of 12 was raped. She can't remember the details of the rape such as where it happened or who did it. Gabriel Mann is Owen, a rock journalist who is sent to interview Sherry but also has a secret that is key to what happened to her on the day she was raped. Owen was there when it happened, in fact he was an unwilling participant in the rape, forced by his own brother, played by Eric Stoltz, to rape the girl with whom he had just begun a tentative relationship. At first Sherry doesn't know who Owen is, she is locked in an alcoholic haze induced by the years of torment following her attack. But once Sherry finds out who Owen is the film gains it's momentum, and becomes an emotional rollercoaster.

Things Behind The Sun was directed and written by well-known indie hauteur Allison Anders and is said to be based on some of her own personal experiences. This is probably why the film feels so real it was almost too painful to watch. Anders is one the most brave and beautiful filmmakers I have ever seen and proves that film is not just entertainment at times, it can also be art.

The performances by Gabriel Mann and especially Kim Dickens are deeply affecting and emotional. It's surprising because neither had previously shown much promise. Especially Mann, whose resume includes Josie & the Pussycats and the Freddie Prinze Jr. movie Summer Catch. Each actor is aided greatly by a brilliant supporting cast including Don Cheadle (Candidate for best actor on the planet in my opinion), as Sherry's much abused manager and boyfriend/attempted savior, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz and Elizabeth Pena in small but pivotal roles.

Things Behind The Sun is the first film in a long time that was able to pierce my ironic armor and go straight to my heart with it's beautifully written story, moving performances and lovely soundtrack provided in part by Sonic Youth. I am not ashamed to admit this film made me cry more than once though admittedly I'm closer to the subject matter than some. I feel it may have that effect on anyone who sees it. In retrospect Things Behind The Sun may have been the best film of 2001, I urge everyone to see it

Movie Review The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2007) 

Directed by Marc Forster 

Written by David Benioff 

Starring Khallid Abdalla, Zekaria Ebrahimi 

Release Date December 14th, 2007 

Published December 13th, 2007 

Marc Forster is an auteur of the highest order. His debut film, Monster's Ball, crafted astonishing art out of some of the grimiest, grittiest, settings, the deathly, colorless halls of a prison and the desperate, depressing decorations of the lowest wrung of the economic ladder. Halle Berry at her most naked didn't hurt but beyond that artifice lay characters of great depth, feeling and sadness. He followed that stunning feature debut with something entirely different, the gentle, imaginative life story of J.M Barrie in Finding Neverland. That film earned him a Best Director and Best Picture nomination. Forster then offered yet another dizzying 180, following his Oscar nominated work with a turn to the sci fi genre, a mystery called Stay.

Somehow critics missed the subtle brilliance of Stay, a thoughtful, ingenious genre pic. The failure of Stay thankfully didn't slow Forster for a moment and he was back on ten best lists across the country the next year with the imaginative and quirk filled romance, Stranger Than Fiction. And once again Forster has pulled one of his masterful 180's. His newest effort is arguably his most ambitious yet. Leaving behind many of the trappings of Hollywood, he's kept the budget, but Forster has moved to the Middle East to craft a story in Arabic based on a best selling novel. So, not an easy box office sell. 

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini's stunning tale of life before and after the Taliban in Afghanistan was long sought after but thought to be un-filmable. Many filmmakers could see the potential of this story about the bond of children, the love of family and country, and the many inherent tragedies of the Middle East. However, they could also see that trying to make a movie entirely in Arabic in Arab countries with Hollywood dollars would be nearly impossible. Thankfully, Marc Forster was undaunted and now we have The Kite Runner, a subtle, thoughtful, and thoroughly absorbing tale that once again affirms Marc Forster's place among our finest filmmakers.

It seems like ancient history. Before the Russians invaded Afghanistan there was the beginning of a revolution. A revolution of freedom, democracy and most hopefully, peace. In this pre-Russia, pre-Taliban environment, we meet Amir and Hassan. Though Hassan is technically a servant in Amir's father's home, the two young boys are equal in love and friendship, the kind of close bond that only young children can have. Together they fly kites, see movies and tell stories. Unfortunately for young Amir he is something of a coward and relies entirely on Hassan for protection.

So, when Hassan is attacked by bullies and humiliated in a devastating fashion, Amir witnesses but does nothing. His shame unbearable, Amir ends their friendship just before the Russians arrive to end it permanently. Chased from the country by the Russians, Amir's father takes him to America and he goes on to become a successful writer. It is then that another secret is revealed, one that will rekindle the bond between Amir and Hassan and return Amir to an Afghanistan that is a far different place than of his youth.

Told with soft, precise movements, audiences will be forgiven for calling The Kite Runner slow though I prefer to call it deliberate. It's a far cry from Forster's other impressive works which were far less understated than The Kite Runner a work of a much more quiet and thoughtful genius. The Kite Runner is Forster's first stab at real film-making maturity. Removing the tricky elements of his earlier works, the sex of Monster's Ball, the flights of dreamlike fantasy in Finding Neverland or the twisting logic of Stay, the physics of Stranger Than Fiction, Forster settles in for a quiet bit of storytelling in The Kite Runner and shows himself a master of that as well.

Told almost entirely in Arabic with Arab actors in all of the lead roles and not a recognizable American face in the bunch, The Kite Runner is in so many ways brave and bold. What a shock it is that a Hollywood studio, Dreamworks/Universal, actually got behind it. They did and we are the beneficiaries of their faith that Marc Forster could tell this foreign story in such a universal fashion. Shocking moments of violence occasionally break the calm of The Kite Runner but they are merely a small part of the subtle, human tapestry of this exceptionally well told tale which teaches far more with gentility than with the force of shocking violence. 

A remarkable work by a remarkable filmmaker, The Kite Runner is a beautifully compelling film experience. By the way, in case you are wondering what Marc Forster has up his sleeve next? In another wild career twist, he is hard at work on the next James Bond movie.