KINGSIZE MOVIE REVIEW: THE BLIND SIDE

Each week afternoon host Brad King checks out the latest Hollywood has to offer and lets you know whether you should SEE IT, SKIP IT, or RENT IT with the King Size Movie Review.

Sandra Bullock is having herself quite a year. Over the summer she starred in The Proposal a romantic comedy that went on to become the biggest hit of her career. Now she is starring in The Blind Side, an inspirational sports movie (is there any other kind?) that has already hauled in over 100 million dollars in just two weeks of release.  Not bad for an actress whose last movie to make more than 100 million, Miss Congeniality, hit theaters nine years ago.

The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher, a giant of a high school kid from the projects. He’s never known his father and has been shipped around from foster home to foster home for most of his life. When the movie opens his current foster dad is trying to get him enrolled in the private, Christian, mostly white school of Wingate in the rich part of Memphis. He talks to the football coach who agrees to get him enrolled, he says, because it’s the Christian thing to do, but it’s obvious the coach also hopes to get him on the team.

Oher is played by Quinton Aaron. He is a big, quiet, sad boy. He can’t read very well and carries his few belongings, an extra shirt and a few school books, in a shopping bag. One night, while walking in the rain, he is stopped by the parents of one of his younger classmates. They are Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock respectively. Leigh Anne decides immediately to take in Big Mike. They welcome him into their almost picture card perfect family. The oldest daughter, Collins, is a smart, good looking girl. Their son SJ is a precocious youngster full of energy and wisdom beyond his years. Both children, by all accounts, do very well in school and have never given their parents a second of heartache or grief. Sean is a successful owner of 85 Taco Bell franchises; Leigh Anne is a successful interior decorator and designer. Both seem happily in love and Sean seems happiest watching his no-nonsense wife take charge of a situation, whether it’s telling off a bushy bearded redneck at a football game or charging head first into the projects ready to take on one of the local gang members.

As Leigh Anne, Bullock wears the same expression she did for much of The Proposal, that of a cold-hearted ice queen. Except in this movie, beneath the rarely smiling exterior is a heart of gold, a warm, caring Christian woman who doesn’t judge, who wants the best for her kids and is all too happy to open her ridiculously huge home to a stranger. Bullock does a nice job and it wouldn’t surprise me if we start to hear some Oscar buzz for her. McGraw and Aaron both do good work here as well, as does Kathy Bates who shows up in a very small role as Mike’s tutor. Of course, Bates ALWAYS does good work no matter what she’s in. Also showing up playing themselves are several real life college coaches like Tommy Tuberville, Nick Saban, and South Bend favorite Lou Holtz, though, sadly for us, Lou was wearing South Carolina colors since that’s where he was coaching at the time this movie was based.

The Blind Side is a nice, uplifting true story of a boy from the projects, given a loving home and trying to work his way through school and on to football glory. It gets a little schmaltzy at times and it easily could have veered off into the realm of a Lifetime movie of the week but overall I enjoyed it and can recommend you SEE IT.