Review: ‘The Blind Side’ isn’t your typical football movie: it’s better

Sports movies usually offer a shocking amount of heavy-handed melodrama designed to stir emotional responses from viewers. A lot of them, especially films that play out on the gridiron, are based on true stories, which are then pumped-full of social issues, either race or class, that can be extremely manipulative towards its viewers. While some of this is true in The Blind Side, the latest from director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo), the film excels in where it differs from the norm. Instead of using the true story of Baltimore Ravens left tackle Michael Oher to steal easy tears from the audience (there are many scenes where this could have happened), The Blind Side masterfully takes viewers on a character journey and avoids all of the many, many trappings found in this drama.

The Blind Side is based on the dual-storied novel by Michael Lewis who examines not only Michael Oher’s rich story, but that of the NFL’s in its post-Lawrence Taylor world. In the film, Michael has been moving from home-to-home, couch-to-couch for most of his life. His mother has struggled with drug addictions and his father has been absent since birth. A teenager, young Oher beings to attend Windgate High School, a private Christian school in Memphis, TN thanks to his athletic prowess. He struggles mightily with his school work which puts him on the verge of expulsion.

“Big Mike,” a name Michael doesn’t care for, is homeless and carries with him an extra t-shirt in a plastic bag. On a rainy night after school, the Touhys pick up their kids from the school and see Michael cold, wet and looking miserable. After prodding from family matriarch Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock), Mike ends up sleeping on the family couch for the night. Michael’s background remains a mystery to the family but they are enchanted by the large kid’s disposition and shy attitude. Michael quickly becomes a part of the family, much to the chagrin of Leigh Anne’s hoity-toity friends who call Michael a “charity case” and begin to lightly mock the “take-no-gruff’ blonde. She shuts them down, spectacularly.

Though Michael’s home life has taken a change for the better, his grades still stink. Thanks to a few teachers who provide young Michael with extra assistance, “Big Mike’s” grades show improvement; so much improvement that Michael is eligible for sports. Once on the school’s football team, (at fictitious Wingate, their mascot is the poorly chosen “Crusaders”) the big man shows promise and eventually becomes a national prospect.    Grades are not the only issue for Michael, as he comes to grips with his past, his mother and influences from his old neighborhood, a Memphis housing project.

Grades are not the only issue for Michael, as comes to grips his past, his mother and influences from his old neighborhood, a housing Memphis housing project.

The movie belongs to Sandra Bullock who has been stuck in the wilderness of romantic-comedies for far too long. Bullock showcases a quiet motherly strength without bombastic lunacy which will quickly endear her to viewers. Charming, steely while exuding affection, Bullock’s Leigh Anne Touhy looms taller than “Big Mike’s” shoulders. It’s quite possible that this is Bullock’s greatest performance since…well, ever.

Her surrounding cast plays support extremely well and Quinton Aaron’s take on Michael Oher is hard to gauge beneath the character’s seemingly flat-lined demeanor. Aaron’s character evolution is enjoyable and sly without sudden leaps in development or logic. It’s also great to see a film that doesn’t resort to painting Christians or conservatives as deranged psychotics, but instead as authentic and human characters.

On the surface, The Blind Side may look like your typical run-of-the mill football movie complete with a blitz of slow-mo on-the-field-montages, but the film is anything but ordinary.

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