"The Blind Side" is a movie in which nice people do nice things and we learn in the most straight-forward of Hollywoodized manners how a shy and passive kid from the inner city became a star offensive lineman. Because it is based on the true story of pro football player Michael Oher, "The Blind Side" benefits from a level of authenticity that elevates the material past its flaws and turns it into a quality message movie. Given his nature, Michael is an easy person to root for, and the audience can follow alongside with sympathy, even when it's fairly obvious where the narrative is going.
There is a somewhat clever early scene that encompasses the world that Oher lives in. On paper, Big Mike (Quinton Aaron) is just a horrid student not worthy of enrollment at an affluent private high school, but this all changes when the football coach looks out the window. Seeing the God given talent of Big Mike, who stands well over six feet and is already approaching 300 pounds, Coach Cotton (Ray McKinnon) decides that it is his Christian duty to use his influence to get Big Mike past any enrollment barriers. From early on, Big Mike's size and athletic ability are seen as his only real assets, and without them he would likely be just another derelict kid from the inner city with no future.
But we soon find that his size tells only a fragment of his story. When he is pulled aside and told that his father has been killed, Mike hardly reacts at all, admitting with stubbornness that he couldn't even recall the last time he saw him. Though he can intimidate anyone with his physical presence, he is painfully laconic and we don't even find out until well into the movie that he doesn't even like being called Big Mike. Michael, as he prefers, has been abandoned at every step in his life, from his mother and father to the very neighborhood he was raised.
Leigh (Sandra Bullock) exists in another world - one filled with a cushy life of wealth and privilege. Her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) owns dozens of Taco Bells, and Leigh's life mainly consists of going to swanky lunch spots and talking to her snooty friends about nothing of importance. The cantankerous Leigh exists in an ordered bubble and Michael exists on the other side.
Because of the nature of the sports movie, we understand what needs to happen and soon Leigh meets Michael and takes him into her home. Her husband doesn't really ask questions, mainly because he knows better than to rile the tiger. When she gets a certain look on her face, her husband reflects, she's about to get her way. While most people see Michael as simply a tool that should be helping a football team, Leigh begins to care for him in a way he has never experienced.
Sports movies are among the most difficult to make, for even the most well choreographed action cannot compare to the real thing. Not only is "The Blind Side" a sports movie, but it is also a movie about an offensive lineman - a position player that never touches the ball and typically blends into the chaos, even when playing well. But because the story of Michael Oher is so compelling, it is a good one to tell and director John Lee Hancock does his best to make the football action fit with the story.
But where "The Blind Side" nearly loses its control is in its treatment of Michael's past. Because more drama needs to be added to the story, there is an improbable conflict setup between Michael and the thugs in his impoverished neighborhood. While most of the movie toes the line of plausibility, it takes some suspension of disbelief to watch Michael take on an entire gang of hoodlums. And though racial tensions play an enormous role in the story, it is mainly relegated to the periphery, only dealt with in the most basic and stereotypical fashions.
What director Hancock does get right, however, is showcasing the difficulty Leigh has in slipping past Michael's cold and emotionless exterior. She sees the sadness he carries around in his massive body and simply cannot continue her nearly perfect life without doing something about it. Bullock, who again proves she can do more than romantic comedy, portrays Leigh as a tough-willed woman interested in Michael on an emotional level first. Because Michael's personality is not very enthralling, Leigh becomes the moral center of the story and is the counterpoint that makes the movie work.
When a life turns around as well as that of the real Michael Oher, Hollywood simply cannot resist fitting that life into the familiar sports movie formula. "The Blind Side" is not a great movie by any stretch, but it is successful in showcasing an uplifting and simplistic tale worth telling, sports clichés and all.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.