Movie Review: The Blind Side

We live in a cynical age. People would much rather mock goodness than celebrate it. It doesn’t help that goodness can often be so smug and mockable. The winsome movie The Blind Side, which hit theaters November 20, sidesteps this dilemma. Based on a true story of a black teenager and the sassy white woman who made him part of her family, never dreaming he would grow up to be a NFL player, the film is a rare thing: A movie about someone doing something good that overcomes cynicism and highlights joy.

Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) is just mom trying to live a good life in Tennessee, raising two kids, rooting for the school football team, and enjoying the wealthy lifestyle her husband Sean’s (Tim McGraw) hard work provides. She’s opinionated and brassy, steamrolling over people who don’t see the obvious brilliance of her ideas. She practices her Christian faith by raising money for good causes and trying to do right.

A moment of decision finds her. Her family comes across an oversized African-American youth walking through the darkness on a cold night without a coat. Where many of us would see someone else’s problem or even danger, she simply sees a cold child. She brings him home, just for the night.

One night turns into several, which turns into a long term arrangement, which then turns into legal guardianship. Michael, played with quiet gentleness by Quinton Aaron, is a sweet child who has somehow survived the worst that the drug-riddled projects could throw at him. He’s behind in school and mourning a mother whose drug addiction kept her from being a parent, but he’s got one thing going for him: He’s huge. The Touheys, whose abiding passion is football, teach him to play.

The young man grows up to be Michael Oher, today a NFL player with a $95 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens. This is his true story.

There are lots of potential pitfalls in a story like this. The most obvious is that it would be sappy, entertaining only to nuns and grandmothers. However, Sandra Bullock plays her character with a breezy determination that makes the movie fun, and yes, funny. She won’t take no for an answer. Even Big Mike yields to her petite, high-heeled will.

While covering a serious topic, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, poking fun at football obsession, politics, even race. “Who knew we’d have a black son before we knew a Democrat?” Sean wonders.

Secondly, people don’t like to be preached at. The film solves this with a strong story and vibrant characters. It is not a story of what the viewer should do, it is one family’s story. Leigh Anne and Sean spar and laugh at each other like any happy married couple. Their son S.J. (Jae Head) bubbles with enthusiasm and a little boy determination to bask in his adopted brother’s glory. The film respects it characters. Even Michael’s drug-addled mother is painted with compassion in her regret and despair.

Finally, the movie does a very tricky thing. It highlights joy. By the last reel, there is no doubt that Leigh Anne and her family love Michael and he loves them. He’s joined the family and the viewer wants to join and be a Touhy too, it looks like such fun. The point of the movie isn’t that Leigh Anne has been saintly and done a good thing, it’s that she has a son she loves and could not imagine life without.

The viewer leaves inspired, not so much because he feels a burden to bring a child in from the cold, but because he never imagined the joy that could result from doing so. And that, my friends, is a major triumph over cynicism.

[The Blind Side is rated PG-13 for some scenes in the innercity involving drugs and sexual references, but these are not glamorized and instead presented as bad in the context of the story. It is appropriate and edifying for older children.]

by REBECCA CUSEY, who is a member of the Television Critics Association and does celebrity interviews, reviews, trend pieces, and event coverage. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Comcast.net, World Magazine, National Review Online, Relevant Magazine, Beliefnet.com, Crosswalk.com, and many other outlets.