I walked into The Blind Side with a huge prejudice. I thought it was just going to be another cliche sports movie.
The new coach that has unorthodox methods of coaching, the rebellious popular kid with an attitude, the true story concept and the heartfelt ending whether our team wins or loses; we all realize that our teamwork and relationships had made us better people.
How wrong was I? The Blind Side wasn’t really a sports movie at all; it was about a person who played sports.
The Blind Side chronicles the true story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron); a poor high school student who was raised in the projects who gets adopted by a wealthy family.
The family is primarily run by the matriarch Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) who helps assimilate Michael into his new lifestyle.
Many things are great about his movie, and I guess it would all start when Michael first starts living with his new family.
Here, we get to truly see an extremely big culture shock for the fact that two different groups of people are being assimilated. The Blind Side brings the issues of racism and poverty to the forefront.
What’s also interesting about this movie is that Michael doesn’t even feel like the standout character in this movie.
Probably because he is portrayed as a “talk slow, but carry a big stick” kind of a guy, therefore his character doesn’t scream academy nomination during this movie. That’s where Sandra Bullock steps in.
Bullock plays Leigh Anne, the mother of the Michael’s adopting family and her character is certainly gives The Blind Side the “in your face” firecracker that it needed.
It seems that Leigh Anne is always looking out for Michael in one of two ways: the heartfelt “I’m buying you a bed” way or the “don’t mess with my son” way.
The only downside is that the first way may come across as a little cheesy, and the second may come across as unbelievable ( I caught myself a few times saying, “No way someone would act like that”), but the good news is that we buy into it because we want to.
With the exception of the Leigh Anne’s daughter Collins, the minor characters that make up the family are great.
Leigh Anne’s husband Sean (Tim McGraw) is an excellent balance of a certain relaxed nature.
In essence he’s the comforting calmness that Leigh Anne needs. Leigh Anne’s son S.J. (Jae Head), is also a fun character to watch. S.J. is a small, but loud little kid who adds an innocent humor to the film.
And, heck, it’s still hilarious to see a tiny little kid pal around with a massive football player.
What really sold me on a recommendation of this movie is that it’s not about sports or football.
Of course, not all sports movies are about the sport itself, but they sure do spend a heck of a lot of time out on that playing field. Not The Blind Side.
Maybe, just maybe fifteen minutes of the film at a maximum takes place on the football field.
That’s what I love about this movie the most. Oftentimes when I watch a sports movie, it’s so dominated by the fast paced action of sports that it takes away from the important message at hand.
The Blind Side defies all of that by minimizing the sports concept and focuses on the story of a person. B+