The Blind Side Review

‘The Blind Side’ is a Tired Premise Executed Superbly

-----Leigh Tuohy is a very Christian, very wealthy, and very white southern woman with a loving husband and a couple of kids; all of them football-loving to some degree. Then Leigh meets Michael Oher, a homeless black teenager who happens to be a giant known as “Big Mike” by the few people vaguely associated with him. Leigh decides to do the Christian thing, and brings him into her home to the eventual revelation that he could be a football star in this take on the true story.

-----Sandra Bullock stars as Leigh Tuohy. Bullock has a lot of weight to carry with her many year’s in the industry with a lot of paychecks coming out of the romantic comedy genre, including this year’s bland ‘The Proposal.’ That being said, it’s all the more impressive that she is able to shed all of that metaphorical weight for the role of a responsible and commanding woman far-flung from the goofy girls in Bullock comedies. She instead carries the movie, which is focused primarily on her despite it being the Michael Oher’s story. Playing Michael Oher is Quinton Aaron in another strong, occasionally heart wrenching, performance. He, like most of the cast, bares a striking physical similarity to his real life counterpart, but also wields a supreme likability that will win over nearly everyone in one way or another. Oher’s mysterious past isn’t looked into very much, but Aaron nonetheless brings it with him in his performance, with pain behind the sincerity that supplements the film’s potency even through its more generic bits. The supporting cast is also played satisfactorily thanks to some appropriate casting including Tim McGraw as Leigh’s husband and a funny role from the legendary Kathy Bates- an actress I’ll take over Meryl Streep any day of the week.

-----‘The Blind Side’ is refreshingly less about football than the trailer would suggest, with only one actual football game taking place throughout the entirety of the film. It also mercifully sidesteps the often seen montages of High School Football scoreboards and locker room celebrations after big wins. The film instead follows the relationship between the Tuohy's and Michael and the consequent pursuit of his college choice and possible football career. Avid college football fans will find plenty to eat up, as numerous coaches make cameo appearances, and the film deals highly with NCAA recruiting tactics towards its third act.

-----The technical presentation is solid for the film, never distracting to the story and even having some good visuals for the few football driven scenes. Unfortunately however, elements of Michael’s past are presented in ways we’ve seen far too many times before, along with a few of the more intense sequences being slave to the conventions of blur-motion effects. Ultimately there’s only so much that can be done with a film like this in the technical department. Including its fairly pleasing musical score, most of the work behind the camera will go unnoticed if it’s being done right in such a film as ‘The Blind Side,’ with everything consistently, if not spectacularly, aiding the story.

-----True stories are getting turned into films faster than ever these days, with 2009 alone providing a number of examples. ‘Julie & Julia,’ ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats,’ and even ‘The Informant!’ all take place either primarily or partially around to the turn of the century, from 2001-2002. And just when you thought that was fast, the marketing campaign for ‘The Blind Side’ openly revealed the ending, which literally occurred within the last year. While the film blatantly boasts this, I will spare the two people on Earth who still don’t know how it ends, though once they see it they too will be stunned by Hollywood’s rapid transfer to film. And as the Box Office would attest, people eat up the notion of a guaranteed ending they know they’re going to love. Regardless of Hollywood’s rapid turnaround, I liked all of the aforementioned films, so they can keep making them this quickly for all I care. Still tough, ‘The Blind Side’ has become ridiculously overrated since its release, with people absolutely lauding the final product. I liked the film enough to encourage people to make the effort to see it, but in reality I only think it’s a good film, hardly great. It takes a premise that, while unique in its true life details, has been so overworked by Hollywood in one way or another that I’m tired of seeing it. ‘The Blind Side,’ while agreeably executed to just about the height of its scripts potential, provides very little new to this age old premise of the football take on the American dream. And Michael Oher’s life before the film begins isn’t examined to a degree that intensely separates him from the many other cinematic incarnations of underdog football heroes over the years.

-----All in all, while a four star rating usually indicates that I would likely suggest a desire to see the film a second time (not in theaters necessarily, but maybe a rent in addition to the big screen), I find no urge to see ‘The Blind Side’ again. It’s a film to be enjoyed thoroughly once; rooting and cheering on the title characters, but unnecessary-by the nature of the story being told-to see again. I’ve said this often but it remains true, and so ‘The Blind Side’ proves to be a solid feel-good movie, perfect for family viewing. It’s neither bold enough for anyone to dislike, but consequently not a film to be remembered too much a decade from now either, at least not as anything more than the film that (possibly) earned Bullock an Oscar. ‘The Blind Side’ is a fine execution of worthy morals instilled in a conventional plot, and is also absurdly overhyped at this point, thought it remains fundamentally good entertainment.

Official Trailer