The Blind Side

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2010)

This is surely a feel-good film which tries its best to tell the story of a wealthy white couple adopt a black teenager who has talent in football, in a drama-free and encouraging way. Surely enjoy the whole process of watching this film, but if one has time to reflect his mind, what's under its superficial surface is that the film proposes an important question, how to balance the pity and conscience.
As nowadays "selfless" good deeds are covered with some opaque disguises which makes people question the original intention, and I do believe every single action and word all has its own intention, ever subconsciously to the person himself. So Lynn selflessly takes care of Michael, behind which hides her own intention like Sean (her husband) mentions in the film because it gives you satisfaction. Sometimes maybe the answer is that simple, which I admire a lot from this film.
The film is based a true story and considered a mainstream film aiming to all different levels of audiences and it succeeded it box office as a sleeper hit last year (earned more than 200 millions dollars domestically alone) and even nominated for 2 Oscars including BEST PICTURE and won the BEST ACTRESS award for Sandra Bullock. (One year before, who could imagine Sandra won an Oscar?), it truly shows that Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz or even Demi Moore and Meg Ryan will have their chances in the future!
I will talk a little bit more about Sandra's Oscar winning for her role in this film. It is very tricky because some say it is a brave decision and others say it is a shame even worse than Gwyneth's winning in 1999.
Five nominees, Sandra, Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Carey Mulligan (An Education). I haven't watch "The Last Station", but just several years after "The Queen", Helen needs to be more patient to gain her second Oscar, so this nomination actually is more suitable to be considered as a warm-up for this year (who has 3 Oscar-baiting films at hand).
Gabourey and Carey are both wonderful in their roles but as both are new-comers, their votes is definitely split which makes them difficult to win. So my original prediction was going to favor Meryl, who totally would deserve her third win. But generally speaking I didn't have too much confidence in Julie & Julia, firstly Meryl don't own much screen time (she is the co- leader with Amy Adams) and I think there is a thin-line of difference between acting and imitation. I did fear that the only surprising nominee could beat Meryl was Sandra, which actually happened.
So, let's take a look at her performance here, Sandra is the sole focus of this film, I think the director even sacrifices the deeper depictions of Michael (who should have been the obvious main character of the story). Actually Sandra's role is a little bit plain but she manages to carry the whole film and creates an unexpected chemistry with her comedically deadpan acting which surprisingly saves the film's tame storyline, and makes the film much more watchable and enjoyable. Thus in all respects, chooses Sandra is a more reasonable choice as Oscar still a local film awards anyway and most Americans love Sandra Bullock.
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