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If the early part of the film, in which an aspiring writer is haunted by questions of his own culpability after witnessing the rape of a childhood friend, is faintly reminiscent of Atonement, then the next section is more like The Namesake, as Amir and his father adjust to life in America while still following some of the traditions that they brought with them from their homeland. Amir grows up, goes to college, graduates, and falls in love with Soraya, the daughter of an old-fashioned and somewhat bigoted general (Qadir Farookh)—and their courtship, aided by Baba, is one of the movie's more delicate and charming episodes.

Amir and his wife Soraya (Atossa Leoni)

Eventually, we come back to that phone call in San Francisco, and by the time that we do, a handful of story threads have been tied up fairly nicely. So you almost expect the movie to come to an end in the next few minutes. But instead, the phone call triggers an entirely new storyline in which Amir goes to Pakistan to visit his father's old friend Rahim Kahn (The Nativity Story's Shaun Toub), and Rahim reveals one or two things to Amir which prompt him to return to Afghanistan itself, a land now dead and lifeless compared to the thriving culture we saw there before.

There is a compelling movie in this somewhere, but the film as made lacks a certain momentum. The episodic nature of the story, compounded by the awkward use of the flashback device and the overall blandness of the direction, the photography, and even some of the performances, all tend to leave the viewer relatively unmoved. And that's a problem, given how badly we need stories like this, stories that describe the Middle Eastern experience from a point of view that puts Muslims front-and-center and keeps Westerners more or less to the side.

The film has its merits, though, and the more I think about it, the more I admire its portrayal of Baba. Amir's father has wealth, at first, but more importantly, he has principles and he is not afraid to risk his life to defend a complete stranger. And while he seems a little stern in the early scenes, when Amir is just a boy, he becomes a truly proud and loving dad as Amir grows to manhood. While he has his moral lapses, he is an inspiring figure, and it is not hard to see where the adult Amir gets his strength and courage as he confronts the bullies in Afghanistan once more. The world—not just that part of the world dominated by Islamic extremists, but the world as a whole—needs more men like Baba. So do the movies.

Talk About It

1. Early on, Baba says, "A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who won't stand up for anything." Do you agree? When is standing up for yourself a good thing? Is it ever wrong? How do you know what to stand up for? Is the Taliban standing up for something? What makes them different from Amir, or Baba?
2. How does the film treat Islam? Do you get the sense that Baba is religious in any way himself, or is he more secular? Note the scene where he says, "The mullahs want to rule our souls, and the Communists tell us we don't have any."
3. How do you react when you see the Taliban stoning someone to death? Does it affect how you read certain passages in the Bible? How do you relate Old Testament passages in which God orders the execution of certain people (e.g. Leviticus 24:10-23; Numbers 15:32-36) with New Testament passages in which Jesus tells people not to retaliate or to stone others (e.g. Matthew 5:38-42; John 8:1-11).
4. How would you respond if a friend were as loyal to you as Hassan is to Amir? How do you think you would you feel if you saw your friend being sexually assaulted and you did not intervene? How do you think you would deal with those feelings? Why does Amir tell Hassan to hit him? Why does Hassan hit himself instead?

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