Much better than you might expect

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2015)

Version I saw: Amazon Prime rental (Bluray)
Actors: 8/10
Plot/script: 7/10
Photography/visual style: 6/10
Music/score: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
The Blind Side presents as part sports film, part family melodrama, but there is actually more to it than that. Of course, it is about the rise of sports star Michael Oher, but in that story we see a lot of social commentary, and two really fantastic acting performances. Quinton Aaron is great as Oher, but it is Sandra Bullock who rightly got the attention of the Oscars committee for her role as well-to-do teacher and mother Leigh Anne Tuohy, who takes in a vulnerable black boy and then realizes his potential.
The American football scenes are actually remarkably sparse, which is good, because I know very little about handegg. There is also a very good voice-over explanation by Bullock at the very beginning, which told me pretty much everything you need to know for the purposes of the story. There is more a bit later, and I have to admit that I wasn't following the subtleties, but I got more than enough to go forward with.
The film does rather lead you by the hand emotionally, but I am happy to accept that from a film as long as it is done well. The social commentary, illustrated in the contrast between 'Big Mike's lack of ambition and the Tuohy family's assumption that the best is available to them, is nothing new either, but the point here is empathy, and the film delivers that in spades.
The pace is fairly gentle throughout, which I think is director John Lee Hancock's forte. When he tried thrills and action in The Alamo, he came badly unstuck and ended up with an expensive, boring flop. He excels in writing, and slowly developing themes.
The subtext is not perfect, certainly. I detected a couple of missteps, or at least sidesteps, but crucially, I could see mitigating circumstances for each decision the screenwriters made. All round, it doesn't put a foot far wrong.
If you are a bloke, and doubt you would like a film this soppy, or you are a woman and doubt you would be too interested in a sports film, I suggest you give this movie a try. I think it will surprise you.