THE BLIND SIDE (2009) (***)

For years to come this film will be known as the film that won Sandra Bullock an Academy Award. Whether she deserved it over her competition is up for debate, but it does mark her best screen performance to date. While the story is billed as the amazing true-life tale of professional football player Michael Oher, the film quickly becomes a showcase for Bullock's Leigh Anne Tuohy, a real-life Southern spitfire who did an extraordinary thing for Oher, which transformed his life forever.

Oher (Quinton Aaron, BE KIND REWIND) had bounced around foster homes and friends' houses for his entire life. His mother Denise (Adriane Lenox, BLACK SNAKE MOAN) was a drug addict and had multiple kids with multiple men. He starts attending a mainly white private Christian high school when he is brought to the attention of Coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon, TV's DEADWOOD). He lives at a Laundromat and eats leftover popcorn from school sporting events to survive. Then one night walking home in the cold with shorts and a t-shirt on, he has a fateful run-in with the Tuohys. Leigh Ann decides to invite him to stay at their home.

John Lee Hancock's film portrays the integration of Oher into the Tuohys family with patience and care. Leigh Anne's rich white friends worry about a big black man saying in the house with her teenage daughter Collins (Lily Collins, TV's 90210). Oher is very reluctant to trust the Tuohys, having come from a place where kindness always has strings attached. Through the sheer force of her persistent, take-no-for-an-answer personality, Leigh Anne wears down Oher's defenses and eventually he becomes just one of her kids.

For Oher to play sports he has to get his grades up. His teacher Mrs. Boswell (Kim Dickens, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) discovers that he's retaining her lessons, but has to improve his writing skills before he can take written exams. So she starts giving him oral exams instead. Leigh and her husband Sean (Tim McGraw, FOUR CHRISTMASES) hire tutor named Miss Sue (Kathy Bates, MISERY) to help him out as well. Eventually Oher gets a chance to play and he's a bit timid. This is where the film gained its most criticism. Oher didn't need the Tuohys to teach him football. He had been playing for years. Unfortunately, the film wants to draw the theme of Oher's trust issues and his new family over to his football playing as well. As a result we get a very condescending montage sequence where the precocious Tuohy son, S.J. (Jae Head, HANCOCK) trains Big Mike, which is a name Oher hated. It undermines the good intentions of the film and the Tuohys by unintentionally painting them as the white saviors of this big dumb black man.

Oher's character is simply portrayed as a young man who is completely introverted. His defense mechanism to life's problems is to look away. Bullock's Leigh Anne is the opposite. She sees a wrong and goes head first into fixing it. The Tuohys are shown as a busy modern family who get reminded of the simple pleasures of life when Oher joins them. For a young man who has never had a bed in his life, it makes Leigh Anne reflect on her blessings. Bullock makes Leigh Anne a strong, conservative and caring woman without ever making it seem comical. It's quite refreshing actually.

The film does the right thing by using the contrasting worlds Oher and the Tuohys worlds as the focal point of its narrative. The film only goes for heightened drama at the end when the NCAA confronts Oher and his family over his college choice. The sequence seemed too drawn out for dramatic affect.

When I first heard the story of Leigh Anne Tuohy and Michael Oher, the first thing I thought was of its goodness. The film captures that feeling and runs with it. While this film could fall into the inspiration sports film category, the inspirational part has hardly anything to do with sports. Leigh Anne Tuohy's heart is inspirational. Michael Oher's kind spirit despite his ugly background is inspiring. The film reminds us that there are so many young people who are in the same situation as Oher, but who never get out. While it's not a perfect film, its heart is in the right place and we always need more of that.