Moving Blind Side a Winning Biography
Growing up on the streets of Memphis, abandoned by his father and pretty much forgotten by his drug-addled prostitute of a mother, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) hasn’t had all that many breaks. A mediocre student, the teen somehow gets into a prestigious private school thanks to his athletic prowess, an unproven commodity that can only be ascertained if his teachers can somehow help him raise his infinitesimal GPA.
Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros' The Blind Side
Walking the cold and windy winter streets alone he is spied by Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock), her children S.J. (Jae Head) and Collins (Lily Collins) also attending the same school. Taking Michael home for the night, the well-to-do Southern woman discovers there is more to Michael than meets they eye, quickly realizing she needs to take this boy under her wing or there is no way he’ll be able to rise above his horrific situation.
Based on the incredible true story or Baltimore Ravens rookie Left Tackle Michael Oher, The Blind Side plays like the easygoing and far more family friendly second cousin to Lee Daniels’ Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Both tackle the subject of inner city African American life and the difficulty some teens face in order to get out of the vicious cycle they find themselves in, but where the latter burrows down deep into the underbelly the former is satisfied presenting glossy overproduced melodrama. The thing is, while Precious is obviously the superior effort, thanks to the sure hand of screenwriter and director John Lee Hancock The Blind Side is winning entertainment, a sure-fire crowd pleaser I thoroughly enjoyed.
Working from the 2006 book by Michael Lewis, Hancock gives the film the same down to earth polish that worked so wonderfully for his 2002 Dennis Quaid baseball effort The Rookie. The movie seldom preaches and it very rarely preens, allowing the characters and the situations to speak for themselves allowing for the audience to interpret things however they’d like as things go on. There is a quiet restraint to it all that is at times quite remarkable, the film’s most emotional moments happening when I usually least expected them.
Granted, also much like The Rookie (and especially like his 2004 historical epic The Alamo) the director doesn’t always know when to say when. His film goes on for a good fifteen minutes longer than it needs to, multiple points along the midsection (most notably needless moments with Leigh Anne and a gaggle of lunchtime girlfriends) hammering home information I’d either already figured out for myself or didn’t need in the first place. There are also times when Hancock embellishes things way more than he needs to, the early scenes of Oher trying to pickup the intricacies of High School football at times so unintentionally hammy and saccharine they’re almost silly.
Thankfully none of this sinks things to a level even close to unbearable. The relationship between Bullock and Aaron reeks of honesty and truth and I believed the familial bonds they were forming were coming to fruition. The pair play off one another beautifully, their lingering silences punctuated by a kind words of recognition and mutual respect ones that couldn’t help but delicately touch my heart.
Speaking of Bullock, while I’m not about to call her the greatest actress of her generation I’ve always felt she’s been a little underrated mainly because of the sub par quality of much of the material she’s chosen to appear in. But if her brief appearance as writer Harper Lee in Infamous reminded people of her talent then her work here certifies it. In my opinion this is Bullock’s finest hour her performance full of subtle nuances going way beyond the cocksure attitude and thick southern drawl. All one need to see is a startlingly intimate scene between her and Adriane Lenox (playing Michael’s mother Denise) to realize this is true, the actress rising to a level so far above her usual I almost couldn’t believe I was witnessing it myself.
Too be frank, if I hadn’t already known Michael’s story (thank you ESPN) I probably wouldn’t have been as accommodating to the picture. There have been so many fictional films about righteous white women coming to the aid of the quietly magical black teenager or child my head starts to spin just thinking about them. The whole concept is admittedly a slightly off-putting cliché, and I would understand how some would be scared off by this one just after hearing the slightly schmaltzy description.
All I can say is don’t be. The Blind Side is told with honesty and emotion, and while it does have a few moments of heavy-handedness overall this is a beautifully restrained story of perseverance, strength and compassion that moved me all the way to tears. I liked this movie, at times liked it one heck of a lot, and much like Oher’s own magnificent rookie season for the Ravens this biopic based on his life is a touchdown effort worthy of an endzone celebration.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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