The trailer for “The Blind Side” is a tale of two movies.
One tells the remarkable story of a family opening its arms to a stranger, someone who transforms their lives in beautiful ways.
The other makes a true event seem like so much fodder for a limp dramedy.
“The Blind Side” hangs on to the first narrative for the first hour, but ultimately succumbs to formula in the second, depressing half.
It still provides star Sandra Bullock with her best acting showcase in … well, maybe ever.
“The Blind Side” tells the true story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a homeless black teenager taken in by a loving family led by a frosty-haired matriarch named Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock).
Michael’s past has been a nightmare, but he’s a gentle soul with plenty to offer others. Leigh Anne and her family, quickly learn that for themselves. It’s a bonus that Michael’s bulk gives him a better than average chance of making the high school football squad.
But adding Michael to the Tuohy clan isn’t as easy as having him photographed for the family portrait.
Bullock usually spends her screen time tripping over slapstick gags or pining for her eventual beau. Here, she sets aside her comic instincts, and her dark locks, to play a gritty woman eager to help others for all the right reasons.
She’s aided by her on-screen husband, played by country superstar Tim McGraw. He’s a natural on screen, even though he’s relegated to what’s usually known as the “wife role,” the bland, supporting character who exists to prop up the star.
One could say it’s progress to see a male actor get assigned that duty.
“The Blind Side” demands our attention, and respect, until its feel good tics emerge. The movie trots out oh, so familiar sequences, like Leigh Anne’s racist galpals, and the tutor with the heart of gold - played with gumption by the great Kathy Bates.
And can someone smack the cute out of young Jae Head’s performance? It’s not his fault, but director John Lee Hancock (”The Rookie”) doubles downed on the actor’s adorableness at great cost to the story in toto.
Cynics may decry the film as another example of affluent people showcasing their kindness by being decent to strangers. It’s a hollow argument, but the film doesn’t help itself by depicting Michael in such a narrow fashion.
Surely someone with as awful a past as he had would have an element of dysfunction to him, or an edge that’s hard to buff away.
Aaron conveys a sweet, unblemished soul and moves with a speed that belies his bulk. But when the story calls for more emotional range, his performance drifts rather than locks in.
There’s a great story to be told here, but “The Blind Side” ultimately falls back on tried and true movie vignettes to tell it.
(Photo: Tim McGraw, Lily Collins, Jae Head, Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock star in “The Blind Side,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Ralph Nelson)
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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The trailer talked me out of this one, as would have a concise plot summary. Football, Sandra Bullock, say no more, I’m not there. Props to you for getting through it!
If anyone has the time, read the book. It says alot about the NFL, which bores some, but it was one of the few books I’ve read which brought me to tears, and which I actually bought and sent to friends!
Hollywood has a ways to go before it understands the challenges real people encounter when kindness and grace are used to reverse the effects of a cruel, neglectful upbringing (hint: it’s about faith and optimism, not just the Bullock brand of feistiness!)