On the Blind Side - Review

To say I was moved by On the Blind Side would be an understatement. The Brigadier felt the same. We could hardly move from our seats at the end of the film and, like me, he had a damp wodge of tissues screwed up in his hand.

On the Blind Side stars Sandra Bullock in her 2010 Oscar award-winning role as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a headstrong white wife and mother who turns around the life of a homeless black boy by taking him out of the cold; figuratively and literally.

Is she a bleeding heart Liberal? No. She just feels in her gut that he deserves more. But shouldn’t she be scared? Yes. She plays a woman who feels the scare, breathes in deeply, and goes ahead and does it anyhow.

Gentle giant, Quinton Aaron plays Michael Ohey with considerable subtlety. He slowly flowers; a remarkable transformation sparked by 10-year-old Sean Junior (Jae Head), who takes charge of Michael’s development. Lily Collins is Collins Tuohy, the sister who risks losing friends to keep a brother.

It is SJ who befriends Michael at the white Christian school where he arrives like a beached whale, completely out of his territory.

It is SJ who initiates the tough practice sessions that turn Michael into the football player that every university in the country wants.

Even Michael’s apparent lack of academic prowess can be worked on. Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) is brought in. She encourages, coerces and bolsters Michael’s confidence until he can tackle different subjects in the classroom in the same way that he approaches problems on the football field.

His academic piece de resistance is to write an essay about Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, where 600 men march into a hopeless situation for the sake of honour. Michael’s comprehension moves a previously implacable teacher to tears. Those of us in the back seats, too.

Written for the screen and directed by John Lee Hancock, On the Blind Side pairs up several completely incongruous types.

Bullock’s performance mirrors that of a feisty little tug coaxing a vast passenger liner into a different shipping lane; in this particular harbour, her son is akin to a Customs speed boat nipping around the ship’s flank. And what is astonishing is that such an unlikely alliance could be based on a true life story.

As Sean Tuohy, Tim McGraw provides the emotional architecture for a very fine balancing act with Sandra Bullock. Passivity is one thing, active quietude is quite another. He gives depth to Bullock’s passion, in the way that velvet sets off a diamond’s lustre.

One sizzling moment in the film between Leigh Anne and husband Sean comes when she broaches the subject of them adopting Michael. “Do I get a choice?” he asks. Fade to Leigh smiling mischievously up at him from the pillows: “You knew I was a multi-tasker when you married me.”

Additionally, when you take away their difference in appearance, Sean and Michael have a natural empathy. Both are acute observers; and both have an unusual capacity to adapt.

Flexibility is something foreign to most of those in the aptly-named ‘Hurt Village’ of Michael’s birth; an ugly section of poverty-stricken Memphis. Nor does it come easily to those sitting just a little too smugly in the green parklands of conservative, white America.

McGraw asserts that you don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate The Blind Side. “Whether or not you are interested in football, or sports at all, the story behind this movie is so heart-warming, I think it will appeal to everyone.”

Producer Broderick Johnson says, “The appeal of this story is the combination of heart and humour, as well as sports, which has had its share of negative press in recent years. It’s very timely, especially in the 21st century, when we have come to understand that there is no set type of family.

“We live in a society made up of different kinds of families, where the only things that really matter are our love and support for one another. I think that’s a wonderful thing, and it’s a message that people can really relate to in this day and age.”

The combination of passion and hope in the film is delicately balanced; it could easily have toppled into a mire of sentimentality. Bullock won the best actress Oscar and her first Academy Award for this role.

It has been adapted from the Michael Lewis story The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. This explores the unconventional background of Baltimore Ravens’ left tackle, Michael Oher, who becomes an unlikely but vital part of the Tuohy family.

One of the things that set the film apart was that when the book was published, and even as the movie was being made, much of the real Michael’s story was still unfolding.

Co-producer Andrew A. Kosove explains, “It’s a current events story… but I don’t think that creates complications as much as it creates opportunities.”

“The Tuohys opened up their home and their lives, so we felt a great deal of responsibility to do right by their family, and that’s a lot to live up to,” says Bullock.

“You want people to be entertained, but you also want them to leave the theatre with a genuine understanding of who these people are.”

As we staggered out of the cinema, I told the Brigadier I’d be happy to go back and watch it again. He agreed. What a nice start to a long lunch.

On the Blind Side will be released through Odeon Cinemas on March 26.

Also see:

http://www.reviewedonline.co.uk/index.html

http://www.thedetour.co.uk/film/film.htm