Tale of Courage and Cowardice
By Reviewed by Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan
THE KITE RUNNER
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub, Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada.
Distributed by Berjaya HVN Sdn Bhd
KHALED Hosseini’s bestselling novel on which this movie is based upon has the recipe of an unforgettable tale – friendship, family, forgiveness, fear, redemption and the power of love set against a country torn by conflict.
Under Forster’s emotion-packed direction, this story becomes a distinctively powerful one, with images that are sometimes so grim, sometimes so beautiful, that they stay with you long after the movie is over.
It’s hard to forget the boy Hassan’s (Ahmad Khan) wide-eyed face and the stunning ferocity with which he defends his friend Amir (Zekeria) and the ghastly assault that he has to endure.
Both Zekeria and Ahmad Khan are first-timers, picked up from Kabul, Afghanistan for the movie, yet their soulful portrayals as best friends easily surpass the performances of some of Hollywood’s child stars. Perhaps living in a turbulent country provides them that emotional depth which they could render onto the big screen with ease.
The pomegranate tree scene when Amir throws the fruits to Hassan as an expression of his cowardice and shame for not standing up for his friend would move you to tears and that is only one example of how powerful this tale is.
The movie is touching even without the melodrama or even a long- winded, tear-inducing script. But the turn of events are so swift, sharp and dramatic you would not even have realised that tears had started streaming down.
Ershadi’s portrayal as Amir’s brave and principled father is like a ray of bright light when so many people just want to be safe, refusing to stand up for anything. It was with wisdom that he utters out his disappointment in his son, because “a boy who will not stand up for himself will become a man who will not stand up for anything.”
The metaphor of Afghanistan is cleverly blended in the story of the two best friends. As author Hosseini said in the commentary, “While Afghanistan is being raped, the international community just watched,”
The special features include the words and visuals of the movie, dividing its behind-the-scenes footage into the script and the visual aspects. A commentary is also included, but what’s missing, perhaps, is a look at children in Afghanistan and the country as a whole to give the viewers a better understanding about the world they have peeked into.
I will not be a surprised if one day, this becomes a classic. It’s worth multiple watches, but only if you can endure its heavy, emotional burden.
Rating: *****
ALI
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles, Jada Pinkett Smith and Ron Silver.
Distributed by Speedy Video Distributors Sdn Bhd
IT must have been difficult for former boxing champion Muhammad Ali to be an African-American living in America when racism was at its high. When he was stripped off his title for refusing induction for the Vietnam War, his words resonated of a truth few people saw at that time.
He shouted at journalists that he was not going to war to kill people of another country when the real injustice, for him, comes from fellow Americans who still see him as an outsider just because he is not white.
Michael Mann’s portrayal of the boxer who “floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee” is a comprehensive attempt to tell the story of Muhammad Ali as thoroughly as possible.
In the movie, Mann includes the boxer’s love for women, his friendship with Muslim leader Malcolm X, his fearless and sometimes arrogant attitude of speaking his mind and its repercussions.
But in wanting to explore the different facets of his life, Mann takes the movie a bit too far, taking his time to tell the story (the movie lasts 2 1/2 hours), therefore diluting the excitement of the anticipated boxing matches. There are times when you would sit up in excitement and, other times, you just want to sleep.
But Smith deserves the Oscar nomination he received in this 2001 movie for portraying a resolute fighter who would never give up even when luck was against him.
Aside for digitally mastered audio and theatrical thrillers, this DVD edition contains no special features.
Rating: **
RED EYE
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays and Laura Johnson.
Distributed by Berjaya HVN Sdn Bhd
HE made us fear our dreams in Nightmare on Elm Street series and made us wonder if the gory horror movie scenes could happen to us in Scream. This time, Wes Craven casts doubt over our seat mate on a flight. Is the person you are seated next to really a stranger?
In this movie, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) finds herself seated next to a charming young man (Cillian Murphy) who literally takes her hostage during the flight and forces her to co-operate in his plan to kill another man.
It is not easy to create intense scenes of two people on a flight – the kidnapped and the kidnapper – with the rest of the passengers oblivious to the crisis, but Craven manages to pull it off convincingly.
The special features included in the DVD doesn’t depart from standard special features. Aside from a commentary (which, really, is worth watching only if the movie is worth watching again), it has The Making Of… and an interview with the director. I don’t find both segments engaging.
And the gag reel looks like a hodgepodge of scenes that may be the result of bad editing or it may just be that the crew didn’t have that many hilarious moments on location. At any rate, the gag reel isn’t as funny as it could have been.
In this movie, Craven departs from his horror movie trademark to make a thriller that’s entertaining, given the limited number of actors and locations. It may not reach Nightmare on Elm Street’s scare status, but it’s worth the watch.
Rating: **
JUST LIKE HEAVEN
Directed by Mark Waters
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder, Dina Waters and Ben Shenkman.
Distributed by Berjaya HVN Sdn Bhd
JUST like the surreal thick clouds of San Francisco with which the movie opens, the story hovers somewhere between the Earth and the heavenly sky …it’s a tale difficult to believe but one that manages to lull you into believing the impossible.
It follows the tradition of Ghost – that the dead has unfinished business and need to communicate with the living – but while Patrick Swayze’s character in the much loved film is dead, Reese Witherspoon’s Elizabeth is in a coma. Which basically kills any possibility of it being a tragic romance. You can somehow guess the ending.
Elizabeth is a workaholic doctor who meets with an accident and David (Mark Ruffalo) rents her apartment only to find that Elizabeth is there, adamant to say she lives there although she cannot remember much else. And as they figure out who Elizabeth really is, their resentment turns to love.
Ruffalo’s cool charm delivers the down-to-Earth quality to his character, a widower trying to recover from his wife’s death. Jon Heder is hilarious as David’s supernatural consultant.
What is different with the bonus features (even though it packs the same stuff) is how the makers sub-segment each part. For The Making Of…, for example, there are different parts to it so the audience don’t get lost in the filmmaker’s words. And each segment is quite short, which makes it focused and entertaining. Before it starts getting too wordy, it’s over.
I like the deleted scenes bit although I think the alternate ending is an anti-climax to a romantic movie.
Rating: **
RATINGS
***** Excellent
**** Very Good
*** Good
** Fair
* Poor
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