Okay, but not all it's hyped up to be.

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2015)

I'll start by saying what this movie is not. It's not a sports movie, even though it's advertised as one with the poster featuring Big Mike in football pads and everything. It is not about never giving up on your dreams, since Michael Oher had never played football prior to living with the Touhy's and succeeded, at least in this portrayal, more by talent rather than drive. It's not as good as its ratings suggest and does not feature an Oscar worthy performance from Sandra Bullock, at least not according to me or a lot of people I've talked to. I just wanted to address those "nots" because all of them seem to be misconceptions surrounding this movie.
It's based on a true story, so of course that doesn't leave much room for critiquing the setup of events. The main plot motivators are integrating Michael into the Touhy family, maintaining sufficient grades for Michael, and dealing with the college scouts that come to recruit him. I guess this is most of why the movie is designated as "feel good" because nothing really goes downhill until the last twenty or so minutes. The term "rags to riches" takes about the most literal form possible in Michael's transition from being homeless to getting drafted by the NFL. There are some more poignant scenes as well, mostly involving Michael's past.
Our protagonist is Leigh Ann Touhy, who takes the homeless Michael under her family's care. She obstinately faces the discontent of her friends, which kind of gives a visual replacement to her parents' extreme racism that is lightly hinted at but never really addressed. I guess she was written well, even though I didn't like her very much. Michael wasn't written great because at first I, and others, were under the impression that he was mentally challenged. His character got better as the story went on, but it still could have been better put together. Sean, Collins, and S.J. Touhy are all prominent characters and are incorporated and acted well. The only other people worth noting are Michael's teachers, tutor, and football coach. They come off well for the most part, but the antagonism of a couple of the teachers felt more than a little forced.
The acting and directing were both decent, tough again, Sandra Bullock's performance was not as good as it was given credit for. The script was fine for the most part, but there is room for criticism in S.J. being made to sound older than he was and in some of the more emotional scenes being too dramatic and therefore unrealistic.
I saw that a number of people who rated this low felt like the story was very racist because it portrayed the rich white family as the heroes. The charity shown by the Touhy's is a little, I guess you could say, excessive or unrealistic, so I can see where they are coming from with the white hero thing even though the country would be better off if we had more of that kind of charity. However, I think that it ended up the way it did because the people involved were kind of a "match made in heaven" in the sense that the Touhy's were exactly the right people to employ Big Mike's exceptional football talent and Michael was the last person who would pose a threat to their family.
I hope I didn't make it seem like this was a bad movie, because it isn't. It's just not as good as people have given it credit for. That's really what I hope you take away from this review as a prospective viewer. Try to shake off any expectations you have because they will more than likely not be met. Pretty much the only parallel between what it is and what it's advertised as is that it's inspirational, though not in a championship sports way. If you're debating whether to show it as a family movie, know that it does deserve its PG-13 rating, but doesn't feature anything that would be outside of an 80's PG movie. Overall Rating: 7.1/10.