Review: The Blind Side

The Blind Side
PG, 129 minutes

* * * * 1/2
Sandra Bullock may have won all the accolades for her performance in The Blind Side, but she is just one large part of a very good movie.
There is no doubt Bullock delivers an amazing performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, an effort that won her an Academy Award.
Bullock shines in one of the more serious roles she has undertaken and this may mark a change of focus in her acting roles.
But it is the real story behind The Blind Side that gives Bullock such a great vehicle to showcase her talent.
It is touching and real at the same time and shows the best of human nature.
This is the story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a giant of a young man who had endured more than his share of heartache, trauma and deprivation during his short life in Memphis, Tennessee.
With a drug-addicted mother and long since departed father, Michael finds himself being bounced from house to house with little prospect of a stable life in his future on the wrong side of town.
By luck, Michael finds himself at a private christian school with its football coach hoping to turn his size into a football weapon.
Huge and black, Michael feels as left out in school as he ever has.
His salvation comes initially in the form of pint-sized student SJ Tuohy (Jae Head). SJ takes the big guy under his wing and is the catalyst for his introduction into the Tuohy family.
While Leigh Anne is a tough and uncompromising woman, she also has a heart of gold, so when she finds Michael homeless and out in the rain she brings him into the family home.
And so begins the transformation of a young man who once had no hope.
The Blind Side tracks Michael as he grows into a student and progresses as a footballer to the point where he stands ready to win a college football scholarship and hit the big time.
It seems a privilege to watch on as he and Leigh Anne develop a special mother-son bond and Michael becomes part of the family.
In short, Bullock is brilliant and The Blind Side is every bit as good.
While sport is an element of the story, it does not overwhelm a story about people, hope and love.