Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, November 20, 2009 1:37:20 PM
As just about anyone with a television set knows by now, "The Blind Side" (based on
the wonderful book by Michael Lewis) is the basically true story of a very large, very athletic young black man who is semi-adopted by an evangelical white family in Memphis, Tennessee, after he is abandoned by his drug-abusing mother. The traler is grand; does the movie live up to it.
Thankfully, it does. Sandra Bullock does a stellar job as Leigh Anne Touhy, the feisty ex-cheerleader from teh University of Mississippi who cajoles her family to take Michael Oher (pretty well played by Quinton Aaron) in after she sees him walking down the street, in the rain, in late fall. The movie follows Oher development as both an athlete and a scholar m(well, at least a semi-scholar) and his interaction with his now mostly-white Christian school. Although no overtly evangelical, The Blind Side makes it clear that what motivates the Touhy family (and the private Christian high school that admits him) to take "Big Mike" in is not his athletic ability (although that certainly didn't hurt) but their belief that it was simply the Christian thing to do. This is a sentiment that is not very often expressed in modern film.
Although the rest of the cast (particularly Kathy Bates as Michael's tutor, Ms. Su, and Jae Head as the annoying little brother (and he does start to get to you after awhile) present themselves well, this is basically Bullokck's movie, and she does a fine job with it.
So if you're looking for a post-Thanksgiving outing for the family, take in "The Blind Side". It's fine for everyone (if you don't mind one tiny reference to a certain body part which I can't mention in this review because it constitutes "inapproprate language" according to the robotic posting inspector). And it has one of the best lines in it of all time -- and if you're a loyal Hewitt listener, you'll recognize it when you hear it.