The Blind Side

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2010)

Micheal Oher (Quinton Aaron) was a large black kid who grew up in the Memphis projects living on people's couches because his crack addicted mom was unfit to take care of him. One day, Tony Hamilton (Omar J Dorsey), trying to enroll his kid into Wingate Christian School, also gets Micheal enrolled in the school. Moving from place to place to find shelter, Michael finally comes across Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw) who invite him to stay at their house, and eventually invite him to be a part of their family.
The story of Micheal Oher is really a quite amazing one. Oher traveled from place to place never really having a place to stay, until he was invited by the Tuohy's to stay with them. Having never remained in a school for more than a year, and failing miserably, the Tuohy's helped him raise his grades to be able to play football (and basketball) in school. Eventually this lead to him being one of the most sought after high school players for college recruiters. Just before the 2009 NFL season he became a first round draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens and became the 2009 Rookie of the Year. With such an amazing story of "rags to riches" how does Oher's story translate to film? Very well. One thing that surprised me, and I found refreshing was the fact that a such an openly Christian family was actually treated respectfully and without ridicule. I say this because the movie itself actually has a genuine spirit to it, it doesn't completely feel like a by the numbers inspirational sports movie. The writing does a great job at keeping many of the true things that happened in real life in the movie, moving things around as is typically necessary for screen stories, without making things feel forced. As sports movies go, this movie feels fresher than many that have come in recent years.
This, of course, is the movie that not only earned Sandra Bullock her first Oscar nomination, but her first Oscar win as well and for good reason. Playing a character based on a real person is already a daunting task, but for an actress known most for playing America's sweetheart type roles, playing a strong willed genuinely philanthropic Christian woman is definitely not an easy task, but Bullock equips herself well and steals the movie. And Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher does a fantastic job playing Oher as a person who is shy, quiet, and even somewhat cynical, but doesn't allow his cynicism to define him. Throughout the film we watch these layers removed as he becomes more ingrained in the Tuohy household.
My biggest problem with the movie is some of the changes they felt the need to make to this already fantastic true story. Michael Oher already knew how to play football before being placed on the team at Briarcrest (the real school that he attended while in the Tuohy home). Making it seem as though he didn't, to me, is an insult to the true character this film is trying to portray. On top of that the story, as portrayed in the film, is a little too good to be true. Having researched the matter a bit there's a lot in the real account of the story that does seem that way, but there was also a bit more struggle to get Micheal's grade's up, and he also wasn't the perfect teen that they depict him as in the movie. This lack of an inner struggle for the main character, as well as the lack of an outer struggle throughout most of the movie drags it down a few notches.
All in all, I think it was a really good movie, and while it might not, in my opinion, be an Oscar worthy movie on the best picture front, its definitely one of the better inspirational sports movies to come out in recent memory. Check it out for the performances, the heart warming story, and the inspiration that you will derive from it.
3.5/5