Football fans and family viewers should enjoy the quiet film “The Blind Side”, starring Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher and Sarah Bullock as Leigh Anne Touhy, his adoptive mother.
The story sounds like a simple cliche that would lead a lot of people to run screaming out the door of your theatres: A Christian southern white family adopts a black homeless boy, and makes him a success.
Yet the film itself overcomes the initial impression, not the least because of the way the story was handled, with humor and solid acting.
And indeed, one reason for the movie’s success is that it is not about one character, but includes a cast of minor characters who help fill out the story.
Bullock doesn’t play a “Sandra Bullock” type character, but blossoms into a tart and practical southern lady. Michael Oher’s initially appears so withdrawn that he is taken for lacking intelligence, but with the intervention of those around him blooms into maturity. Helping round out the story is a cast of well known character actors, from Cathy Bates as his tutor, to Ray McKinnon as his coach; Adrianne Lenox as Oher’s birth mother should win a “Best Supporting Actress” award for her short but powerful scene of a woman torn between love for her child and shame that her alcoholism makes it impossible for her to have cared for him. But the real “scene stealer” is child actor Jae Head, the cheerful younger brother 0f the family who is protective of his older brother.
The title “the Blind Side” comes from American football: That the quarterback who carries the ball needs someone to protect his “blind side” if he is to make it to the goal. And it is indeed the real story, of how family and friends protect the young boy so he himself can make it into college on a football scholarship.
And it says a lot about the film makers and cast that I forgot about the racial aspects of the film halfway through it; instead, I saw my youngest son,adopted at age ten, who was shy and withdrawn, but who slowly bloomed as he realized that he was now safe and accepted by those around him.
In a season where special effects movies like “Dancing with Thundersmurfs”, whose budget is larger than that of a lot of third world countries are getting all the hype, if you want to just see a quiet, funny movie that you and your family will enjoy, you might consider going to “The Blind Side”.
I suspect the film will become a minor classic, in the same genre as “Rudy” and “Brian’s Song”: not a big movie, just a quiet movie about ordinary folks that make you feel good.
I give it a B+.
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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. Her website is Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.
7 users commented in " Movie Review: The Blind Side "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackOne of the best moves I have seen this year. Sandra Bullock played a great part multi layered (Peel it back like an Onion!) as her movie spouse said..Good strong sourthren lady. a must see film!!!
Also, it’s based on a true story which makes it even greater! IMO
Powerful and surprising, The Blind Side is a movie about charity, unconditional love, and the concept of family. My favorite part is when Michael explains to his adopted mom(when they are sitting on a curb) how he closed his eyes when his real mom used her crack, and then opened them when she was finished.
beautiful story
WHAT?
THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR OF 2009
Below is the text of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (Conn.) remarks to the 2008 Republican National Convention on Tuesday evening:Thank you for that warm welcome. I am honored to be here.We meet tonight in the wake of a terrible storm that has hit the Gulf Coast but that hurts all of us, because we are all members of our larger American family.At times like this, we set aside all that divides us, and we come together to help our fellow citizens in need.What matters is certainly not whether we are Democrats or Republicans, but that we are all Americans.The truth is, it shouldn’t take a hurricane to bring us together like this.Every day, across our country, millions of our fellow citizens are facing huge problems.They are worried about their homes, their jobs, and their businesses; they are worried about the outrageous cost of gas and of health insurance; and they are worried about the threats from our enemies abroad.But when they look to Washington, all too often they do not see their leaders coming together to tackle these problems.Instead they see Democrats and Republicans fighting each other, rather than fighting for the American people.Our founding fathers foresaw the danger of this kind of senseless partisanship. George Washington himself — in his Farewell Address to our country — warned that the “spirit of party” is “the worst enemy” of our democracy and &#…
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