The Blind Side Movie Review

Michael Oher arrived at Wingate Christian like an overgrown moose: gigantic, lost and impossible to miss. 

Weighing more than the average Toyota and towering over his classmates, Michael was recruited to the school for his athletic promise. But most of Wingate's students are white, rich and ever-so-smart. Big Mike, as he's been called, came from Nashville's projects--a lumbering African-American teen with a messed-up past and microscopic GPA. He has no home to speak of. He carries his extra clothes--just a spare shirt, really--in a plastic bag, and he washes his clothes in the sink at a local Laundromat. Big man on campus? What a laugh. Michael would give anything to just blend in. Or disappear.

And he would've disappeared that cold November night if he could've as he walked, shivering, along the side of the road. But instead, he's spotted by Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family, and before Michael knows it, all 300-plus pounds of him is ushered into the backseat and whisked away to the Tuohy mansion. Leigh Anne throws some sheets on the couch, bids Michael a cordial goodnight and walks upstairs.

"You don't think he'll steal anything, do you?" Leigh Anne asks her husband, Sean.

"I guess we'll know in the morning," Sean says.

The silver's all intact when they wake up, and Leigh Anne asks Michael if he might want to stay. You know, for Thanksgiving, if he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Maybe a little longer, if he wants to. Maybe she'll buy him some new clothes. Maybe.

And so begins a classic Cinderella story--if Cinderella were a value-sized football player who's traded his glass slippers for cleats. There are no pumpkins here, no Prince Charmings. But a generous, too-good-to-be-true godmother? Yeah, Leigh Anne's got that role covered. 

Sports movies aren't usually just about sports. In many ways they've become the morality

plays of our time, preaching the importance of everything from individual effort to finding family in team. You don't need to know about zone defenses to appreciate Hoosiers or be an expert pitcher to enjoy The Rookie. 

The Blind Side, though, is a sports movie that's not really even about sports. It's a football movie based on the story of a real-life (and really good) football player that often avoids football altogether. Only one game is singled out for special attention--Michael's first for Wingate. (They lose badly.) Sure, they go on to win Tennessee's private school state championship. Sure, Michael's shown, in classic Rocky style, working feverishly to get into shape and learn the game. But these are ancillary things: This film doesn't feature a single hail Mary, a solitary goal line stand or any sort of nail-biting finale.

It sidelines all of those things to instead focus on the massive impact people can have in other people's lives. It's not a pristine portrayal, either artistically or ethically. But I was moved by the story and walked out of the theater smiling. Issues of class, race and family are all enthusiastically grappled with--and the good guys doggedly work their way to the end zone, making a couple of extra points to boot.