"The Blind Side"

Sandra Bullock certainly wasn’t at the top of the list of people that I thought would be nominated and ultimately the person that I thought should win best actress at the actress but here we are. Bullock has been what Julia Roberts used to be, an overpaid actress, starring in forgettable, at best movies like “Miss Congeniality” and “Hope Floats”. Her newest role in “The Blind Side” is her at her very best and hopefully what we can expect from her upcoming titles. It was refreshing to see Bullock take off her gloves from run of the mill mindless romantic comedies to portray someone of meaning and do it quite well. “The Blind Side” is a true story about now NFL lineman Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) and his road from not having a place to stay to being a multi millionaire. Oher is rescued by a lady in Tennessee named Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock), who is married to a wealthy owner of a popular fast food chain named Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw), from what is functionally an ad hoc home where he sleeps on the couch of someone living in the ghetto that doesn’t have Oher’s best interests in mind. Oher has flunked out of all of the schools that he has been floated through in the foster care system in TN, and has now found himself landed in a wealthy up class private school. Having a hard time fitting in, Oher resorts back to his old ways of not participating in his school work, being anti social, and nearly flunking back out of school. One night after a basketball game Oher gets passed by the Touhy family, also with two children enrolled in the same school S.J. (Jae Head) and Collins (Lily Collins), when Leigh Ann convinces Sean that they should pick him up. Upon arrival at the Touhy residence that is in the mind of Oher a mansion he is welcomed by Leigh Anne in to the family. There are lots of layers to Oher that are peeled back as the movie goes on, a relationship grows between the Touhy family and Oher as time goes on. Oher goes on to play football for this high school and the bulk of the drama of this movie comes during his senior year of high school while he is trying to get his grades up to get in to a division I school. He ultimately decides that he will play football where the Touhy parents are Alma moderates at, Ole Miss U, and an NCAA investigation ensues. S.J. offers a lot of comedic relief in this movie consistently always playing a bully to the coaches from various high education institutions that come to try and win Oher’s commitment to their school. SJ looks for all sorts of ridiculous perks for his stamp of approval like the right to walk on the field with the teatm at home games. Leigh Anne really takes care of Oher buying him clothes, which is a challenge for his larger than most frame, feeding him, and eventually purchasing him a vehicle. Oher at first has a hard time learning the fundamentals of playing team football but with some help from Leigh Anne eventually picks up the purpose of the game ultimately leading to his success. This is a story full of happy endings, there are certainly times when we would be on the edge of our seats if this were a story of fiction but we know the ultimate outcome before the movie starts so there isn’t as much suspense. Quinton Aaron does a fantastic job portraying Oher, but this isn’t really a movie about Oher, often causing the time he is on screen to not be the focal point of the movie. What is this movie about? This movie is about a ritzy white lady from Suburbia America learning that there is more to life than money and fancy eateries. Bullock delivers the performance of her lifetime; she broke her mold and then rebuilt it. I hope that she is able to continue this in future movies. I think this is akin to Julia Roberts defining performance in “Erin Brokavich”, now the question is whether Bullock can keep it up in other performances. Everyone should see this movie, there were certainly some teary moments at the beginning of the movie but it teaches us all a valuable lesson that we should heed wisely. Good Viewing.
JP