The Blind Side

Posted In: Letters To Juliet

Raeann Amsley says...

When Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), a wealthy Memphis wife and mother meets homeless teen Mike Oher (Quinton Aaron), she takes him home as one of the family.



The movie, based on a true story, is fairly predictable as it heads toward its happy and tear-jerking ending, but it's told so well that it's never corny or maudlin.The traumas Mike endured early in life are alluded to rather than graphically shown, and one is left with overwhelming admiration for him and the Tuohy family.Sandra Bullock is great as the feisty Leigh Anne and singer Tim McGraw is very likeable as her husband.Quinton Aaron is excellent as the abandoned child who went on to graduate from college and play professional football.Many real-life college football coaches play themselves as Mike is wooed by all the top schools.Highly recommended.

Posted on January 24, 2011

Gaylord Figueira says...

This empathetic 2009 sports-oriented drama is what professional critics would call an uplift film, unabashed in pulling all the necessary emotional cords with an undemanding audience. Screenwriter/director John Lee Hancock is no stranger to the genre since his last two films reflected similar against-all-odds storylines, the Texan band of brothers in The Alamo and the over-the-hill pitcher in The Rookie. However, there are two key factors that transcend the potentially manipulative structure of Hancock's adaptation of Michael Lewis' intriguing 2006 fact-based book about the evolution of the left tackle in pro football. The first is the irresistible pull of the true-life story of six-foot-six, 345-pound Michael Oher, plucked out of destitution in the Memphis projects by a well-to-do white family to become the starting left tackle at Ole Miss and now with the Baltimore Ravens. The second is Sandra Bullock, bleached blonde, immensely likable, and heavily into no-bull Erin Brockovich terrain, in a solid performance as Leigh Ann Touhy, the feisty decorator wife and mother who takes Oher into her family home.



The film begins when the coach of a private religious school sees the otherwise lumbering Michael display natural athletic ability on the basketball court. The coach sees untapped potential in Michael as a football player because of his huge size, so much so that he gets accepted despite his poor academic record. It also turns out that the taciturn Michael, referred to by everyone as "Big Mike", is homeless, sleeping wherever he can since the state took him away as a child from his crack-addicted mother. The upscale Touhys have noticed him before since he goes to school with their children, S.J. and Collins, but it isn't until they see Michael wandering in the freezing cold that Leigh Anne impulsively takes him in. Despite some initial hesitation, he quickly becomes a part of the family, and his performance at school improves enough for him to show what he can do on the football field. Once Leigh Ann crystallizes the team-as-family metaphor for Michael, the 345-pound behemoth starts to realize his talent for smashing the defensive line. College football coaches from throughout the South come to the Touhy home to recruit Michael aggressively to play for them. Ole Miss is the Touhys' alma mater, which leads to an unexpected but inevitable dramatic turn.



It's not that Bullock does anything all that new in the movie. Rather, it's that she leverages her winning, every-person screen persona so very well within a character that would seem antithetical to her sensibilities as an actress. While it's true that the story probably puts too much emphasis on her character's role in Michael's ascent, Bullock is one of the few film stars today that can generate such an instant rapport with her audience, and she carries the emotional weight of the story with grit and dexterity. As Michael, Quinton Aaron has to be such an impassive presence at the beginning that when he starts to form into his own person, the actor brings a gentle, palpable force to his character's evolution. It's really the scenes between Bullock and Aaron that tug most at the heartstrings (I welled up at least three times during those shrewdly engineered moments). On the sidelines, country singer Tim McGraw plays supportive husband Sean credibly, and there are scene-stealing turns from towheaded Jae Head as the indefatigable S.J. and Kathy Bates in her usual gutsy-broad form as Michael's tutor, Miss Sue. Broadway actress Adriane Lenox - who originated the role of Mrs. Miller in Doubt - provides the film's most heartbreaking moments as Michael's haunted mother. This is far less a sports movie and more of a story of individual need and the power of family. The film is powerful in that respect.

Posted on January 24, 2011

Lauretta Snide says...

I wasn't certain about going to see this movie...thought it might be too much football.To the contrary, it was just enough of everything.Each character was so well cast, even the biological mom whose silent struggle and brief appearance sticks with you long after the movie is over.



You forget the actors are acting.Hats off to all involved - what a great gift from the movie industry to entertainment seekers this Christmas season. When people stand and movie goers applaud, it's a winner!!!!



A story that certainly should be shared.

Posted on January 26, 2011

Calandra Huppenbauer says...

Don't get me wrong--I know this is a Hollywood version of Michael Oher's life during a particular timeframe. I know that certain real-life events have been tweaked in order to tug more effectively at my (and your) heartstrings. I also know that I can't assume that this movie is a perfect representation of this family and how Michael Oher came to be part of it.



That said, I must admit to having been a sniffling fool throughout much of the film. I am particularly sensitive to stories that show human beings stepping outside of typical comfort zones and taking risks to embrace others who need the attention or support. This story, for all that it's been Hollywood-ized, shows a young man and a family doing just that, and it's powerful in spite of those moments that just seem too good to be true.



I agree with other reviewers that Sandra Bullock has done an excellent job in this film. Her character might sound like a stereotype, but there's too much going on in her heart and head to keep her in a box that's easy to dismiss. She stands there in front of drug dealers who've been basically treating her like a piece of meat at the same time that they're sliding nasty, threatening looks over her designer-clad body, and she manages to hold her own. She enters territory that she likely hasn't ever encountered before, dangerous territory that must have struck fear into her heart and made her want to run in the opposite direction, but she enters and stays because she has something to accomplish, from finding Michael, to finding his drug addict mother, to ensuring that he doesn't meet a horrible end at the hands of those drug dealers leering at her. She does this, and then (I think) she spends however long it takes to fight back the emotions that these experiences bring out in her. The reviewer who said she basically hides when she is emotional is spot on, I think. She is all guts and sarcastic wit and in-your-face honesty because she has to be in order to get what she needs from others. But the soft side of her is reserved for very rare moments, either with her husband, or with Michael, who simply won't allow her finally to walk away and hide her feelings. Interesting that it seems at first that she is the one drawing him out, when ultimately they manage to pull the best from each other.



The acting is superb all-around.Quinton Aaron plays Michael, and he does it with such skill that it's easy to assume he is like Michael all the time, that he is simply playing himself. Instead, what we have is an actor who found the vulnerable core of his character and covered it with the flat, lumbering movements of someone barely connected to life and to other people. When we first meet Michael, it's hard to imagine that he will ever manage a full, genuine smile or even speak effectively to others. He begins to open up, and it's little moments where he reveals some of his past, or just simply tells us how his life is changing, that make him shine as a character. He's got a fair amount of anguish that he doesn't allow to come to mind very often, pain that has shaped him and led to that distance he seems to carry with him most of the time. Just an awesome acting job.



The story was my favorite part, though, and I did find myself crying as the family pictures came up on screen after the movie proper was done. Crying because, hey, here are the REAL moments, many of them part of the film version, too. Here are the pics that show this giant kid dwarfing his new family but also show a group of people finding their joy together. Just very sweet and very necessary at a time when we are likely spending more energy worrying about how crappy other human beings can be. It's nice to be reminded that human beings also contain within them a core of kindness and compassion that they sometimes extend out in truly amazing ways to people who not only need it but who have so much of their own to give back.



I will definitely get the DVD when it's released.

Posted on January 26, 2011

Sigrid Chiodo says...

"The Blind Side" is the inspirational true story of Michael Oher, a black Memphis street kid without a family who is taken in and adopted by a wealthy Caucasian suburban family headed by Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. The boy becomes a high school football powerhouse and goes on to become heavily recruited college football prospect.



That's the simply-put plot of the film. But what that doesn't say is how much this film displays love, compassion, caring, tenderness, survival, and toughness. Not only from the family's dominating matriarch, Leigh Anne, played by Sandra Bullock in her best ever performance, but from Quinton Aaron playing Michael, who may seem to be a naive innocent, but who also develops into someone who is resilient enough to flower and thrive under the love and care of the Tuohy family.



Great cameos by the actual coaches who recruited Oher enhance the film, as does good natured humor and a fairly balanced approach of perspective from both the family and Michael. But more than anything, this film says a lot about love and how that bridges every difference that human beings can have.

Posted on January 28, 2011

Clarita Hornyak says...

First, let me lay a couple of cards on the table.I don't usually like Sandra Bullock.Also, I don't like football, and therefore I don't like football movies (with the exception of KNUTE ROCKNE: ALL AMERICAN).In fact, there are just a handful of sports movies that I do like.



But THE BLIND SIDE is not a sports movie.(Or if it is, then it's the kind that's not really about sports.)It's a movie about family.And it boldly states that your family is not necessarily the people you're biologically related to or share the same skin color with.Your family is the people you live with and cannot live without.



Michael Ohr is the quintessential - gigantic but timid and gentle - hero that everyone would love to have by their side.And so is his adopted mother, Leigh Anne (portrayed by Sandra Bullock in what is easily her best performance).One of the more important lessons Leigh Anne teaches Michael is to protect your family and loved ones both on and off the field.When one of his former acquaintances speaks disparagingly of Leigh Anne and her daughter and then threatens him he....Actually, I don't quite remember what he did - it all happened so fast.But one guy was slammed into a wall, and I think one was thrown against another.And it seemed like he nearly caved in a stairwell.It was so fast, it made Jason Bourne look like The Nutcracker.



One of the many things I love about THE BLIND SIDE is that the family is a family of faith.Sean and Leigh Anne are Christian parents and extend Christ-like love to Michael.



I cannot conclude this review without stating my favorite line from the movie.Leigh Anne has been threatened by an inner city thug who also plans to harm Michael.She rips him a new one even in front of his hoodlum buddies and says, "I'm in a Bible study with the D.A., and I'm a card-carrying member of the NRA!"



While this movie is very much about family, it is definitely not a family movie.It earns its PG-13 rating quite well.It's not for the younger kids.But it has a better message than probably any other film you're likely to find.

Posted on January 28, 2011

Marjory Eigner says...

Not superficial but it did avoid issues like Micheal's prior lifestyle, NFL negatives, racial issues, continual violence (there is a bit), sex (there is one word), and the opportunistic feminist topic---IN FAVOR OF---FAMILY, COMMITMENT, PERSEVERANCE, AND ADOPTION.A very pleasant trade of options.Hallmark-like in a positive way.



This is a highly emotional presentation, emotional highs and lows.It's not only the dramatic story of an underprivileged youth that causes it, but fantastic acting.



Yes, a true story of a Baltimore Ravens player. Sandra Bullock makes Mom, Leigh Anne, come alive, a mother every hero would want to have.That's at the expense of Sean, Dad's (Tim McGraw), contributions to the boy in real life. In this movie they are downplayed, unlike the book and actual truth.But with every book-to-film production, something must be minimized, something accentuated, to make it desirable for 90-something minutes.The story could have been done many ways, but the director/writer used the mother/child relationship at the forefront.

_____A favorite dialogue line, given by Sean, "who would have thought we'd have a black son before we knew a democrat?"Michael (Quinton Aron) delivers another tear-jerking line, at least it was at the moment and manner it was given, "Need a proper hug!"



A warming story, good for now, when there is enough strife and negative aspects to everyone's real life.It's nice to see a positive story coming up on the big screen.It will likely be even bigger as a DVD--I want one when they are ready.



Bullock was her usual awesome self, presenting a realistic and desirable southern Christian rich belle. Keeping up with her was her movie son, S.J. (Jae Head) who should get a supporting role award for his fantastic acting as the enthusiastic comedy role in the movie.He is a delight you'd like to take home and adopt.



Inspirational!See it!



UPDATE IN MARCH 2010

SANDRA BULLOCK WINS. She finally wins, and well deserved. This movie has been in our local theaters since November and continues on the big screen. Definitely one to own forever. Bullock's first win, and over such fantastic competition, puts the icing on the cake, with a candle on top. Finally even Hollywood has seen the light. FAMILY FILMS ARE DESIRABLE. And Bullock is a 'bully' actress.

Posted on January 29, 2011

Delsie Pennell says...

I love this movie...I saw it tonight, almost a full month after its release date. Im not much for chick flicks but it was AMAZING!!!! I want to buy this movie and I would pay full price to go see it ten more times. I love southern hospitality as well as wholesom vaules and this movie knock them both out of the park. The little boy in the movie and Sanra make it a hit. Dont even rent it, just buy it. It will be the best movie you buy in a very long time.

Posted on January 30, 2011

Aurea Mir says...

I go to see movies all the time while they are still in release.



At this time of year we have high profile movie offerings like A Christmas Story, New Moon (same vampires), and the world coming to an end with 2012.So. it's easy for this movie to get lost in the shuffle.



It would have been so easy to miss this movie, and such a mistake to do so.For, this is one of the best movies of the year, and one of the few I recommend whole heartedly.



Sandra Bullock gives probably the best performance of her career, playing Leigh Anne Tuohy, a tough business like mom, who sees big Mike, a young oversized kid who never had a role model, and who never did well academically, because he had no reason to believe in himself.He is the underdog we love to root for.



The Tuohys take him in to their plush house, and we get drawn into the experience, perhaps sucked into this story might be a more apt description.Yet Mike has a hidden gift which others like the sports coach can identify, and other teachers start to have faith in him, so who knows what will happen.



If you're like me it's a movie about the importance of a mentor and believing in people, the more you believe in them the more they start to believe in themselves. If you like this one, I also recommend Akeelah and the Bee, another five star movie.In its first 14 days The Blind Side has done over $108 million at the box office, assuring that it will be one of the big hits of the year.



While the Academy does not typically reward comedies with awards, Sandra Bullock may get a nomination, and so might the writers for best adapted screenplay, and she might win a Golden Globefor her performance.



A point of interest in the movie is Lily Collins daughter of Phil Collins who plays Sandra Bullock's daughter.



Update, Jan 29, 2010. As she has now won the Golden Globe, which is a dress rehearsal for the Oscars, I expect she will get the Oscar nomination, and it sets the stage for an interesting contest with Meryl Streep for her performance in Julie and Julia. Both actresses played real life characters, with an interesting mix of drama and humor.Although Oscars are not usually given for this type of performance, the exception is Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny.I predict this will be the year of the exception.Streep has been nominated 15 times winning only twice.This would be Bullocks first nomination.



Update 2/3/2010. The Blind Side has been nominated for 2 Academy Awards, for Best Actress, and Best Picture. As of 2010 the Best Picture category has been expanded from 5 to 10 pictures, partly because of falling ratings, and partly because many popular movies have not historically received the same level of Oscar love, as movies such as The Blind Side has received from the public.



Blind Side has grossed over $238 million dollars domestically, making it the 8th highest grossing movie of 2009, and no 63 all time for domestic box office, and it's still in release.



I hope this was helpful to you, and I think you will enjoy the movie.

Posted on January 31, 2011

Jacqueline Cocopoti says...

My wife and I just went to a double-feature. I picked AVATAR and she picked THE BLIND SIDE. Now, there couldn't be two movies on a different plateau than AVATAR and BLIND SIDE, but I'm so glad that she brought me to see this movie. AVATAR, I gave 4 stars, BLIND SIDE, 5 stars. BLIND SIDE, for what it was, was flawless.



With BLIND SIDE, the story tells itself, because it's the true story of 2009 Baltimore Ravens Right Tackle Michael Oher, or possibly Michael Williams, or maybe something else, and his improbable escape from oblivion with the love and care of a rich white family in Memphis, Tennessee. Michael Oher's greatness, first showed up in his size and athletic potential and then in his courage to forget and go forward. Michael Oher, a kid who struggled at basic study skills and education, but scored a 98% in protective instincts. A tribute to his lifestyle and his ability to survive, homeless, with two shirts, a pain on his face that couldn't be explained.



Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, and I haven't seen a whole lot of nominated movies this year, but if she isn't at least a runner up to the best actress of the year, I'll be stunned. This was Sandra Bullock's shining moment. She is strong and she is funny and she is exceedingly brilliant at hiding the tears she sheds throughout the movie as her personna won't allow her to be seen crying. No scene was more poigniant than the one where she makes a bedroom for Michael in her beautiful home with a chipperness that you would expect from a spunky Tennessee mother. Michael says, "I've never had one of these before." and she says, "What, a room?" "No, a bed." he says. She looks at him, stoned faced, gives a quick nod and exits the room, enters the bathroom, locks the door and although we don't see it, we know exactly what she's doing.



THE BLIND SIDE is a testimant to what life is all about. The Tuohy families link to Michael Oher may have been a rare occurence, and that's why there's a movie about it, but if we all looked out for each other a little more, despite color boundaries, despite class boundaries and just showed a little love and extended a helping hand when we could, the world would be a better place.



The Tuohy's didn't just extend a hand, they extended their hearts and lives.

Posted on February 2, 2011