Sugar-Coated, Watered-Down Mess

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2010)

Blind Side, The (2009)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Typical sports drama about a poor black kid (Quinton Aaron) who is living on the streets when a couple rick folks (Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw) take him into their home. They try to get his grades up at school so that he can play football and soon they discover his true talent. You know going in what to expect from this true-story but the amount of sugar really got under my skin after a while as did the fact that this thing followed every sports cliché in the book. Every once in a while a film will come along and makes millions of dollars and I'm left there scratching my head as to why. I think I know why but this film pretty much plays to a simple crowd who probably aren't going to expect too much. I'm not sure how many times this film followed a cliché and delivered the same type of clichéd line and I honestly couldn't help but laugh. Just like the scene where Bullock walks up to some gangsters in the ghetto and insults them. Now, this gangster just pulled a gun on her son and has probably killed a few folks in his day yet he's going to let this white woman come up on his turf and insult him? It's doubtful but it's one of those "cheer" moments that only take place in movies like this. If one hasn't seen a lot of sports movies then perhaps they won't get annoyed with all the stuff here but I've seen quite a few in my day and by the hour mark I was wishing I was somewhere else. The film has been getting a lot of attention for its performances and they're pretty good throughout, although I certainly attach the word Oscar to any of them. Bullock gives the Southern accent her all and delivers a fiery performance but to me the real breakthrough was Aaron. He does a pretty strong job at playing quiet and really delivering emotions without saying a word, which is a lot more impressive than just shouting out lame dialogue. Even McGraw does a nice job but I must say the real NCAA coaches don't come off as good. The subject matter has been sugar-coated to the point of being watered down but this is to be expected since this is a mainstream film trying to capture as many people as it can. It certainly worked because as I was walking out there were many people crying, myself including, but my tears were of frustration for just wasting $20.