You Must Take this Movie Literally to Get It

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 2010)

The problem with this film's detractors is that they see this as more than the literal story of a rich Southern woman who helped a black youth with no hope for a bright future rise up and become an NCAA football star, and later a player with the Baltimore Ravens. I suppose this movie does fictionalize the true story a great deal and punch it up so that it is a quintessential "Feel-Good Hallmark Movie of the Year" (TM). Still, do not forget that it is based on a true story... it really happened. I think it is supposed to be an inspirational story for those with little hope of achieving big things with their lives; by the same token, it is also possible that "The Blind Side" became a book and movie because it was a rare occurrence, something that does not usually happen in this world (Sandra Bullock's character says something to this effect towards the end of the film). If you take this movie at face value as an anomalous yet heart-warming true story, you won't read any "sinister" message into it and enjoy it a lot more as a story.
Some detractors see this as movie as an example of insidious Southern paternalism by wealthy whites towards black people. It has been a subject of historical study by luminary historian as C. Vann Woodward in his book "The Strange Case of Jim Crow" (where paternal racism was replaced with the less subtle and toxic version of Jim Crow that was to grab hold of the Deep South in the twentieth century). I suppose it is possible, but the problem with this argument is that "The Blind Side" is but one example of the benevolence of a wealthy white Tennessee woman towards a poor black Tennessee boy. Is paternalism a common attitude, or even a common theme of films set in the contemporary South? Is this a trend we see often in movies and literature set within the last forty years, and is it a problem sociologists have noted recently? Unless this film's detractors can use other examples and fit "The Blind Side" into this, I can't help but to see their cases as weak and "The Blind Side" as nothing more than a slightly better-than-average heartwarming feel-good movie that is pining for Oscar gold, and was released towards the end of the year to get the notice of any Oscar judges who might wish to nominate it for honors.
The acting was pretty decent, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was excellent. Sandra Bullock was pretty good as the wealthy protagonist of this story. Her one annoying scene is at the beginning, where she narrates the football position Michael Oher would take ("one Mississippi...two Mississippi"). The boy actor who played her son does seem domineering and annoying, but he at least showed a genuine desire for love and compassion for his adopted brother. Some have criticised the actor who played Michael Oher for being taciturn, but I think he did a good job conveying his character's personality without needing to say much.
A nice story and a fairly-good film, if you take it as a literal tale and not anything with a moral or transcendent theme. Real life does not work like literature. In spite of the efforts of the filmmakers of "The Blind Side" to force a true story to take the conventions of fiction, it shows the vagueness of real life, which often time has no discernible theme to convey, other than that sometimes some people are pretty damned lucky to have a rich good Samaritan help them achieve great things.