nothing to really get too worked up about - not even Bullock can elevate it past its 'safe' quarters

Rating: 5/10 (26 February 2010)

I'm sure Michael Oher is an inspiring sort of story. In fact his real story, the one glossed over in the film version The Blind Side, is kind of fascinating (unlike in the film, Oher was taken by several families over the years, some black, until winding up with the Twohey's as seen here). That he could make a difference, if only for himself, is a fine feat. But there's something about the movie that is sanitized, kept in the Hollywood bakery to make it fresh for a G-rated mass consumption. It's not even offensive to any great degree, except for the fact that the filmmakers relegate the main character to a secondary kind of role (rather, if he does have any real personality in real life, it's whittled down to make him a cypher, a character that does what he's told and never questions anything - not even why he becomes a football star).
Oh, it has its moments. And Sandra Bullock has that feisty kind of 'All-American-Woman' spirit, the kind that wins Oscars (you know the kind, re: Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich). And her acclaim for the role isn't unearned as she puts a lot of passion and personality into the part, at least as much as the script allows. And Kathy Bates has an amusing if bizarre cameo as the lone DEMOCRAT of the piece (something she mentions like she's sad to be Satan coming through the door). But it's the character of Oher, and the actor playing him, that brings the film down. The film itself has its conventional pleasures and beats, but I couldn't help but feeling they left Oher out to dry, like a symbol of something for white people to rally around. Again, it's never too offensive, and its heart is in the right place (think of it, perhaps, as a sign of burgeoning White Conservative Guilt peeking out as opposed to garden-variety liberal kind).
Yet characters outside of Oher don't bring much to the table either. I would've liked to have seen some other personality come out from, say, the high school football coach, or understand more about where Oher came from aside from the usual 'oh, it's a bad ghetto' thing. It's ultimately neither too stirring as a human saga nor as a sports triumph, but just run of the mill. And yet for another audience, children, it's a fine little piece of fluff (tell me the director wasn't thinking of a children audience during those plucky scenes where the little boy acts like an agent for Oher in front of the college recruiters).