inspiring story with good performances

Rating: 9/10 (28 September 2010)

This happens to be my first. I was reading through some of the reviews here. Most of them had judged this through the wrong lens. Normally I don't care, but this movie deserves better. A "sports movie"?? C'mon!!. This is bigger than that. Someone also talks about white and black.
Well, for me, I being an Indian not familiar with the American football or the black and white stuff, this was one of those which had a lot of warmth to it. Please see this without prior notions...
This is a simple story, or would have been one, if it was not a true event. A simpleton, who don't keep a grudge on anybody or anything, happen to meet a great family, pure luck, and his life is changed forever. Forget football, forget being black and/or white guilts, savor this one. You will feel that genuine warmth that seeps through in each character and if that's half what actually happened in that big family, the director deserves a standing ovation. It is easy to depict people's feelings using apt dialogues, but the main character in the movie rarely talks. Even then we get to see how he is a changed person, not by his grades, not by his football, but by that simple "Big Mike smile" he begin to put on when he is accepted as one of the family. And that gets through even to the sister. Watch it for those moments where you will feel for him, for the genuine concerns of the mother and that little brother. If you ever felt being loved by someone, this movie will fill your heart. And do appreciate those wonderful performances, Sandra Bullock shows why she's highly rated. watch it like you read a story..you'll love this. I just did.