With his adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner Marc Forster (who will soon be know as the director of the James Bond movie with the dumb title) has crafted an excellently done, almost beautiful film. The only problem, however, is that its subject matter makes it nearly impossible to recommend.

Revolving around a life-changing, traumatic experience shared by two boys in 1970s Afghanistan, The Kite Runner is a film best experienced "cold", with as little prior knowledge as possible. Knowing this is a movie about redemption and sacrifice is enough to prepare one for a viewing. The level of semi-ubiquity the novel achieved thanks to its selection as an Oprah book may make this hard, but if you don't know what to expect, you'll have a much easier time watching this movie. It's impeccably constructed on both a narrative and a technical level, but the subject matter is some of the most unpleasant I've grappled with in a movie in quite some time. Whereas some filmmakers are able to use misery to their advantage as a sort of tool to commandeer and confuse an audience's emotions as much as possible (PT Anderson, for example), Forster quite simply portrays human grief, leaving us to our own devices. This ultimately makes The Kite Runner a rather large downer without much of a replay value. It quite simply becomes too much to take.

On the special features front, The Kite Runner is more or less average. A commentary and two featurettes are pretty much disposable, but will most likely satisfy the movie's die-hard fans (if there are any). This is a pretty solid package, but nothing on the disc is quite as special as the movie.

While I cannot recommend viewing The Kite Runner any more than one time, that does not stop it from being a very good film. I can't stress enough that Forster is an ably talented director who gets great performances out of his actors and briskly carries the movie along with a distinct style that never becomes too distracting. No matter how you look at it, The Kite Runner is very well-made, and worth a viewing. You just might not want to revisit it.