(Released in Theaters: 11/20/09)
The Blind Side, directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) and based on the book by Michael Lewis, tells the true story of Michael Oher, a.k.a. Big Mike, a poor under-educated African American who is taken in by a white family. The director’s style is very similar to his earlier work in The Rookie. He takes a true story and makes it seem almost unrealistic by using Hollywood techniques to cheese up the script and please the crowd. While The Blind Side’s filmmaking style might be a good way to make money, it seems like an easy way out and using a more authentic and raw style as Lee Daniels uses for Precious seems like a more effective way to tell a story and move the audience at the same time.
Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by Leigh Anne and Sean Touhy (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw), a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his capability. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, Michael faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and one of the only black students, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, gets recruited by major college scouts.
The Blind Side was mildly entertaining. There were several scenes where I was really into the movie especially the cool opening and a lot of the emotional scenes between Michael and Leigh Anne. They seemed to have decent chemistry throughout the film. When Michael was trying to show emotion was some of the parts that took me out of the movie. He wasn’t the greatest actor, he just fit the part very well. He’s like Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe from Precious except she turned out to look the part and be extremely talented as well. This film can almost be compared to Precious because the stories are very similar, it’s just that Precious is a new and raw style of filmmaking and this is the same old Hollywood stuff.
Sandra Bullock being marketed as a sure thing for an Oscar nomination is completely absurd. Every time she needed to get emotional in the film she would go off camera and then it would show her with tears in her eyes. A few times she seemed very real but mostly she was totally fake throughout the film. She was average at best with her portrayal. The other thing that bothered me about the acting is that the little boy in this film Jae Head who plays S.J. Touhy is the exact same character as Hayden Panettiere in Remember the Titans. I noticed it abut halfway through the film and it’s amazing because their voices actually sound exactly the same, and then every time he would speak it would make me mad.
But I’m being a little harsh on The Blind Side, this film isn’t suppose to be an amazing Oscar film like Precious or some of the other artsy dramas out there. It is made to be a crowd pleaser and to take the usual Hollywood route of taking a true story and cheesing it to the point where it’s almost hard to believe. I must say the crowd I was watching the movie with was enjoying it, just not my cup o’ tea.
So if you are going into this film thinking it’s going to be a moving piece of cinema like the trailer makes it out to be, then don’t be blind sided when you realize it’s just another hokey Hollywood sports drama.
Imdb: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Moviewiseguys: 6.0/10