The Blindside -Movie Review

Went and saw the Blindside on Monday night at the District. I'm pretty sure that's my favorite theater around here. It's not super close but for some reason I like it best.

Anyway, I thought this movie looked really good from the previews and it did not disappoint. Honestly, this has to the maybe the first drama I've seen in a while (I'd have to go back and look through my posts here to be sure).

Here's the basic plot (I don't know where the links go, I just cut and pasted from another site)

“A poor, undereducated 344-pound African-American teenager in Memphis, whose father was murdered and whose mother was a crack addict, is shuffled through the public school system, despite his low grade point average and absenteeism. But his tremendous size and quickness attracts the interest of a wealthy white couple who take him in and groom him both athletically and academically to become one of the top high school football prospects in the country.”

The Blind Side movie is based on the true story of football player Michael Oher, whose incredible track was traced in Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game”.

That isn't a completely accurate assessment of the plot, but I don't think this was the official statement about the movie either. The Touhy's (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw) take Michael in because he has no place to go, not because of his size or athletic ability. That does become a focus for him and them, but so does academics. They really do make this guy's life 1,000,000 times better than it ever would have been otherwise. In fact at the end they show one of his buddies from the hood has been shot and killed in gang violence - which, it's implied, could have just as easily been Michael if he hadn't been taken in by the Touhy's.

Anyway, I was warned that the movie was really sad and I should be ready to cry. It wasn't that sad. In fact it was actually a really nice story. There was one scene where Sandra Bullock has gone to visit with Michael's actual mother, and she becomes very emotional and Sandra holds her hand that was sad-ish, but not tear worthy. Bottom line is a black kid from the hood of Memphis ended up getting a really great deal from a very giving and caring rich family from the "right side of the tracks" in Memphis and got a much better life out of it. He now plays for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL - pretty dang cool!

I really liked the movie. At one point it did seem to be dragging a little but that didn't ruin it for me. I'd say 4.5 out of 5 stars. Tim McGraw's hairpiece was VERY distracting it was so bad. Every time he was on screen I couldn't take my eyes off it. He should have just gone bald. I mean the Movie family was WAY more attractive that the actual family (as it should be for the movies ;-) ) so Tim being bald would not have taken away from his role at all.

I'd recommend this movie, maybe the "feel good" movie of the year. :-D