The Blind Side (Warner Bros.)
Rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references.
Starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Lily Collins, Ray McKinnon, Kim Dickens, Adriane Lenox, Kathy Bates, Catherine Dyer, Andy Stahl, Tom Nowicki.
Written by John Lee Hancock, based on the book by Michael Lewis.
Directed by John Lee Hancock.
GRADE: B+
REVIEW
I love a good sports story, and even more, I love a good inspirational story. The trouble is, most of the time, true inspirational sports stories are often the result of grand embellisment. Such films are advertised as "based on a true story," with a heavy emphasis on the "based" part. Some producers and studio promoters go even further into bald-faced lies concerning the veracity of a film's premise (see: Fargo or more recently, The Fourth Kind). When I first heard of The Blind Side, a film account of the so-called true story of current NFL football star Michael Oher (pronounced "Oar"), I was understandably skeptical.
Quinton Aaron plays Oher as a teen who is awarded a scholarship to a private Christian school near Memphis. The scholarship is procured by a relative who ships his son and Oher to the academy while playing upon the school's sense of Christianity and a need for quality athletes. Oher is a giant of a boy with natural athletic abilities, so the school agrees to allow him entrance. The problem for Michael is he doesn't have a permanent home, sleeping on the his uncle's couch and eventually wandering the streets on his own after perceiveing he's worn out his welcome.
Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Touhy, a former Ole Miss cheerleader married to a former Ole Miss basketball star Sean Touhy (played by Country singer Tim McGraw), who owns several Taco Bell franchises. The couple live an affluent lifestyle with two children attending the same private school as Oher.
The Touhys take little notice of Michael, even though their young son Sean Jr. (or S. J.) befriends the timid boy. At one point, they notice him attending their daughter's volleyball matches and scrounging the bleachers for discarded popcorn after the crowds disperse. One night, they spot Michael walking down a road in cold, wet weather wearing nothing but a short-sleeve shirt, sneakers and a pair of shorts. Leigh Anne is moved to have Sean pull over and ask Michael if he has a place to stay, and eventually insists he spend the night on the couch in their plush home.
One night turns into another, and slowly Michael becomes one of the family. One gut-wrenching moment in the film happens when Leigh Anne decides Michael should move from the couch to his own room. Michael confesses it's the first bed he's ever had. If that doesn't get to you, see a cardiologist, because you may be missing your heart.
Leigh Anne, who works as a high-end interior designer also buys clothes for Oher. It turns out that a few shirts, the shorts and the sneakers were the only clothing he owned, carrying the extra shirt around in a plastic grocery bag and sneaking his dirty laundry in with strangers' at local laundromats.
The Touhys also rediscover what it means to be family through helping Michael. They read together, eat together and begin to appreciate their good fortune a little more. When Michael asks Leigh Anne to help him get a driver's license, she learns it would be easier if she were his legal guardian. That leads her down the path of adoption, which eventually leads her to find Michael's real mother, a drug addict living in extreme poverty who lost most of her children to state custody.
With Michael's gargantuan size and natural athletic ability, the Touhys suggest the boy go out for football. Their first hurdle is Michael's grades, which have improved since he began at the private school. The other big hurdle is Michael's "gentle-giant" nature and lack of football technique, despite his natural football physique.
His coaches try, by Michael still doesn't get it, and the boy seems destined to be a failed football project until he saves S.J. from a passenger-side airbag deployment in a traffic crash. Leigh Anne uses Michael's natural affinity for "protection" to inspire the boy into becoming the best (and most recruited) offensive lineman in the country, attracting college coaches and scouts from some of the most touted football programs.
But Michael has another problem. Even though his grades have improved since moving in with the Touhys, they aren't good enough to qualify for playing college football, per NCAA rules. The Touhys hire a tutor named Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) to help Michael get his grades up. Despite the many offers from some of the most prestigious college football coaches of the day (including real-life coaches like Nick Saban, Tom Fullmer and Lou Holtz), Michael choses Ole Miss, the alma mater of his adoptive parents and Miss Sue. Apparently unknown to Michael, his high school coach also conveniently lands an assistant job at Ole Miss.
Michael's choice spurs an NCAA invesitgation into whether the Touhys, his tutor and his coach unfairly influnced his decision to go to Ole Miss, and Oher begins to question their motives. Did they adopt him to help Michael or the Rebels of Ole Miss?
The film ends with Michael examining his past and discovering the prosperous future given to him by the Touhys, as he moves on to enourmous football success.
While remaining skeptical of the sliding degree of truth found in the "true story" of Michael Oher, I have to admit The Blind Side is a good film with a good story. Having done a little research into Oher and his relationship with the Touhys and the controversy behind his college recruiting, I would say writer-director John Lee Hancock's script based in Michael Lewis's book hits pretty close to the mark, although I'm sure there are many scenes that were manufactured from imagination.
The performances in The Blind Side are more than adequate as well, most notably the portrayal of Leigh Anne Touhy by Sandra Bullock, who draws upon her own "tough lady" persona. I wished Bullock could have shown a little more emotion, but I am happy to see the star can do better after her All About Steve disaster. Quinton Aaron's performance as Oher is perfect; understated, humble and touching.
Even with the good performances and touiching story, there are a few moments in The Blind Side that fall into the "sports-movie-cliche" category, like the redneck father of the loud-mouthed redneck opponent in Oher's first football game who is sure to get his comeuppance. There's also the obligatory "training montage" in which the hero develops from a bumbling fool into a superstar over a one-minute musical sequence.
Some have found fault with the story of Oher and his relationship with the Touhys as some sort of racial controversy. Readers could take notice I didn't mention that Oher is black and the Touhys are white southern conservatives. I barely noticed, and neither should anybody else. The Blind Side is not a story about race; it's a touching true story about how a little bit of charity can change the lives of those who give and receive from their hearts.
