The Blind Side

The movie Blind Side is a non-fiction story about the life of Michael Oher and his struggles to overcome life's obstacles such as social problems, the struggle for human dignity, human relationships and coming of age. The plot of the film is that a teenager Michael Oher (played by Qinton Aaron) has been surviving on the streets with little closing and no place to live. He is spotted by Leigh Anne Touhy (played by Sandra Bullock) and as she questions her children she learns that Michael, commonly called Big Mike by other kids, is a classmate of her kids at Wingate School a school predominately for those with social status. On that first meeting she insists that Michael, who is scantily dressed for the winter, get into the car and takes him home for the night. Once there she is a little scared that he will do something, but in the morning finds all the covers neatly folded on the end of the couch and Michael gone. This first moment of kindness on Leigh Anne's part, and the unfamiliar behavior expected by Michael, to later draw the family to make Michael a member of the Touhy family.

Although there are extreme differences in background, Michael accepts to live with the Touhy's an in turn undergoes a entirely new set of challenges. Some of those challenges include, fitting into the school, trying to pass classes to be able to play football, and making friends. SJ Touhy (played by Jae Head) becomes Michael's closest friend and helps him to overcome many of the social obstacles. At one point Sean Touhy (played by Tim McGray) mentions that Michael is "basically a fly in a bowl of milk at Wingate". As the story goes on Michael eventually begins to change the lives of the Touhy's as they make discoveries into their own lives and how they have grown accustom to having money and overlooked those who don't. An example of this is when Michael questions what happens to all the uneaten food at the restaurants the Touhy's own. Leigh Anne even stands up to her lifelong friends as they question her intention with having Michael around all the time and admits that Michael is changing her life.

This film gives you the sense of caring and makes one take a look at their own life and how one might overcome adversity to become something much greater in life. The background in which you come from does not make the person. It is how the person treats the world that makes a difference. Yes Michael becomes a football player (high school, college & later NFL), but at one point they had to ask him if he even wanted to play football. It's a great real life success story, but one has to look past the achievements of Michael Oher at the real meaning of what the Touhy family did. It a movie about the best in humanity and how, if those who are blessed with financial and spiritual resources reach out and share those blessings, they can change the course of someone's life for the good.

I must confess I was weeping 5 minutes into the movie and that's unusual for me. I had read the book and in the book nothing is that black or that white for that matter, but this is as movie and as a movie it works. I was expecting commercial interruptions every few minutes, the film felt so much like a TV movie. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. The Michael Oher story had to be told even with the poetic licenses that the film takes, shamelessly. Sandra Bullock plays herself beautifully as always and her character with all her saintly stern, southern modern American woman could not move away too far from "Miss Congeniality". But it works and at the end of the day, after paying the prices one pays at the box office, it's almost enough. Why they had to ruin it with an Oscar nomination? The nomination makes you look for something in her performance that clearly isn't there. If you go to a Sandra Bullock movie, the quality of the movie may vary but she is always terrific, playing that Sandra Bullock character. Good for her.

Just watched this after reading a news article in the entertainment section of an online newspaper and thought I'd look it up.

Went onto YouTube because the newspaper's video clip wouldn't work, YouTube didn't let me down and I was able to watch a clip.

I have to admit that although I have enjoyed all the films that Sandra Bullock has made and have a bit of a soft spot for her, which means that I will watch anything that she is in, I've always thought of her as a bit of an acting lightweight, always seeming to be in those slightly off, quirky type of acting roles in the films she's appeared in.

In The Blind Side she's had me change my view of her as an actress, as in this film we get to see her really act seriously, making the role her own and showing that she can really act.

Her character is so believable and I so hope true to life of the real person that she was playing in the film - and to me showed a different side to her acting talent that really up until now I haven't really seen before.

This film is worth watching for the story and all the great acting in the film from all concerned.

If you have a couple of hours to spare this film is well worth the time to watch and enjoy and end up feeling warm and cosy by the end :)

First of all, Quinton did a fine job in the lead role. Let's get that out of the way. Great acting job. He took the material he was given and played the role very well.

However, this film is pure Hollywood sap, a "feel good" movie that picks and chooses factual elements and builds a fictional tale around them. The film loves the character of Leigh Ann (who is really not that interesting, although she is kind hearted and generous), and as a result, Oher is relegated to a shy over-sized charity case with no clue and no skills of any sort, other than his natural kindness and resilient character. That strengthens the focus on Leigh Ann's rescue actions, how she "saved" this poor aimless kid and gave him all the life skills he needed to succeed on and off the football field. It resonates with white suburban do-gooder audiences, but it's just not accurate.

In truth, Michael Oher was already a very good football player when the Tuohy family took him in. And he had a bold, confident personality that rubbed off on everyone and made him a natural leader. He was a motivated, focused kid who knew what he wanted, but came from an environment where no one really cared or provided support. He was NOT a shy, introverted pathetic case. He just came from a terrible domestic environment and found stability with a nice rich family. The real story of Michael Oher is how he caught the luckiest of breaks and escaped the ghetto jungle and was able to leave all that soul crushing crap behind, and focus on academics and athletics in a completely different upper middle class environment. It's a study in how important environment is in the life of kids and teenagers, and how it can make a huge difference.

But what we, the audience, receive is a Hallmark channel film that is nothing more than a lazy, formulaic, fictionalized "warm your heart" chick flick couched in a football world. Sassy dialogue, woman-takes-charge scenes, tender moments, etc -- all the usual stuff is there. The film would have been FAR better had it focused on Oher as the lead character, instead of Bullock. No offense to Bullock, who is a fine actor.

It is well known that real life Michael Oher was very displeased with this film, and how it portrayed him.

I have just returned from seeing the blind side. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, particularly it's more poignant moments. Yes, this is a sports story, yes this is a biopic, but it is also in large part an interpersonal drama. It is rare to see a movie these days that relies on drama to carry it-not special effects, lush historically accurate wardrobe, or astounding make up- just a story that resonates with the viewer. That this story is based on contemporary facts makes it all the more resonant. Events that might have been handled superficially, predictably or exploited for dramatic purposes were instead presented in a nuanced and profound manner. Michael's biological mother was portrayed with dignity and compassion. In short, the aspects of Michael's story that make it moving and inspiring were captured with skill and integrity. As for the negative feedback regarding this movie that began when the only the trailers were available - I think the comments might be more a reflection of the world view of the authors rather than a reflection of the quality of the movie or the reality of Michael's story. Some people think the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a story about racism in the south, or that "The Crying Game" was a movie about the IRA - to me those were the settings for the drama, and not the drama itself. John Lee Hancock really bit off a lot when he took on this project-but as it turned out, it was not more than he could chew. Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder commented on how we were a nation of cowards when it came to openly discussing race? With this movie, Hancock has demonstrated he is not one of those cowards. He did not ignore the racial or class differences of the characters in this movie, and he avoided using the movie to make a social statement with the movie. He allowed these character attributes to be what they were in reality, and told the human drama in an effective and sensitive manner.