I was predisposed to like "The Blindside." I like football and football movies; I like inspirational stories (most times) and I've always liked Sandra Bullock. All good and as expected.
Yeah, it's over the top on sweetness at times; yeah, Bullock has her moments of scene chewing; yeah, it's "movie" football with all the bad that endgenders. Even so this was a good, solid film about a remarkable story of how life can take us to unexpected places.
The story follows Michael Oher a supremely talented football player (he allowed no sacks in 2009) who is currently a starting offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens and how he came to that career through the strangest set of circumstances you can imagine.
A white, upper-class Southern family, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw,) find Michael wandering the streets homeless. They take him in initially just to give him a place to stay temporarily, and through a long series of circumstances become his legal guardians since he's a ward of the State. They make it possible for Michael to finish high school with high enough grades to get a football scholarship to The University of Mississippi to play for the Ole Miss Rebels, the Tuohy's alma mater. This after being functionally illiterate and a D- student.
You can slice their motives for adopting Michael any way you want - white guilt, a desire to see this
talented football player play for Old Miss - or just plain guilt at their rich trappings - it's all explored in this thoughtfull and compelling film. Anything you might think, say, imagine as to the angles on this story are covered and covered well. I never felt like the information was being shoved at me but it was all presented in nice increments including Oher's background at being taken from his mother at a young age because of her addiction to crack cocaine.
The screenplay never falters pacing-wise. Dialogue sparkles with some terrific one-liners (Sean Tuohy: Who would've thought we'd have a black son before we met a Democrat?) and is delivered pitch-perfectly by the cast. The direction is solid and at times inspired. The acting is very good all around with Bullock seeming to have inserted herself perfectly into Leigh Anne Tuohy's spirit and sass. Even country star Tim McGraw does a very credible job. Kathy Bates shows up midway through to do a turn as "Miss Sue" Michael's tutor.
A fun segment was when college recruiting began and Oher was visited by
some of the big names in college coaching: Houston Nutt, Ed Orgeron (Oher's coaches in college), Nick Saban Lou Holtz, Tommy Tuberville, and Phillip Fulmer. They are all played by the real coaches although some of them are out of football and some now coach for different teams. S.J., Michael's younger (adoptive) brother. is shown finagling his own set of concessions from these men in various scenes to good effect. The actor who plays S.J. is Jae Head and he is very good in this.
The film goes to some dark places, perhaps not as deeply as some would have liked, but for me the story wasn't solely about the sickness infecting our inner cities that allows mothers to abandon their children, but rather how we are redeemed by each other. How we can only solve these intractable problems one kid at a time.
What the Touhy's did was indeed inspirational. I'm sure there were times where they seriously questioned their commitment to this young man - but doesn't every parent come to a breaking point anyway? Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family are heroes for stepping in when they could have looked the other way or just dropping a bundle of cash on a charity to assuage whatever guilt they felt. They didn't. And it's made the world just that much better for it. Their actions saved a kid from a horrible and loveless life. How cool is that?
On a side note, I liked that the screenwriter took the time to show us that yes, the Tuohy's had money, but also that they worked hard for it. Leigh Anne was constantly on the phone, making deals, berating distributors, getting better wholesale prices for her design company. Part of this is to show that she is a driven woman and can move the stars to get what she wants but it also had the effect of showing she's no slouch when it comes to being a working mom with a busy, active family.
The ending scrolls are sad in that they tell of children from Michael's neighborhood who didn't have the benefit of the intervention of the Tuohys - their stories weren't as inspirational and feel good - in fact, most of them ended up dead. A sobering lesson at the cost of turning away from the problems facing all children but expecially those in the inner city where life and death are realtime preoccupations.
The measure of any film based on true events for me is, at the end of the movie, do I want to read the book upon which it was based. Yes. I definitely do on this one. In fact, I want to find and watch the Oprah segment that dealt with this story and had the actual Tuohy family on.
This film earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress (Sandra Bullock.) Both nominations are well-deserved.
See "The Blindside" and revel in the joy of this amazing true story.
