In bringing the story of Michael Oher, defensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, to the screen, writer-director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) manages to avoid most (not all) manipulations, and gives us a generally entertaining crowd pleaser. The Blind Side is a simple rags to riches story, with a heavy emphasis on family. Have we heard it all before? Of course. But seldom this well.

When we first meet Michael, he's an awkward and heavy-set teenager with nothing to his name. He was taken away from his drug-addicted mother at a young age, and has since been drifting from place to place. He sometimes sleeps on the couches of anyone who will let him stay, but usually he sleeps at the local gymnasium after it's closed, where he searches for discarded bags of popcorn for food. He goes to a local school, but his grades are so bad, the teachers are starting to doubt if he even has a chance. Quinton Aaron (Be Kind, Rewind) plays Michael Oher, and he gives the character a sort of gentle, yet strong-willed essence. It's next to impossible not to think of Precious, the other movie that came out recently about a hard luck, overweight black teenager who rises above the hate and violence in her life. That movie is definitely harder edged than this, but The Blind Side does give us just enough to sympathize with Aaron's portrayal of Oher. We sense his feelings of loss and isolation during the early scenes that depict him as a wanderer with nothing going for him.

Into Michael's life comes Leigh Anne Touhy. She's a wealthy and feisty woman who sees Michael walking alone late one night. She feels drawn to him, and asks him to stay at their house for the Thanksgiving holiday, since he has nowhere else to go. This short stay becomes extended, as Leigh Anne and the rest of her family strike an immediate, if not guarded, connection with him. Sandra Bullock portrays Leigh Anne, and it's easily the best role she's had in years. She's strong, sentimental, and surprisingly three dimensional. I can picture other actresses playing her almost like a cartoon caricature. She's gruff, speaks with a Southern accent, and openly admits to carrying a gun in her bag at all times. Bullock finds the right note to play her. She's strict and kind of brash, but not so much so that it turns into a self parody. Her performance here is almost enough to make you forget her disastrous turn in the equally disastrous All About Steve. Almost enough.

The rest of the Touhy clan includes her husband (Tim McGraw), a fast food tycoon, and two kids, the youngest boy (Jae Head) providing strong comic relief throughout the film. They bond with Michael as well, and before long, he's part of the family. They help improve his studies with the aid of a private tutor (Kathy Bates), and before long, his grades are strong enough for him to go out for the school football team. None of this should come as a surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with the inspirational sports drama formula, but that's not where the film's strength lies. I have no doubt that The Blind Side has been whitewashed and sanded over to appeal to mass audiences (the Touhys come across as being a bit too saintly at times), but it also manages to avoid some mistakes you expect to see in a film such as this. There is no real villain who tries to hold Michael back from his dreams, there is no tear-filled reunion between Michael and his long-lost mother, and the movie does not play up the race issue of a wealthy white family taking in a homeless black teenager. Yes, it's brought up once or twice by a supporting character, but it never becomes the focus of the drama itself. Instead of manipulating crises, the movie focuses on the simply family bond that grows between Michael and the Touhys.

It's true, the movie does not avoid all pitfalls. There are certain moments that the movie can't help but dish out some corny scripted dialogue. ("You're changing that boy's life", Leigh Anne is told at one point. "No...", Leigh Anne replies with a thoughtful look in her eyes and a pause "...He's changing mine".) It's also hopelessly optimistic, sanding over any real danger. Cynics would be advised to avoid this movie like the plague. But really, it's nowhere near as cheap and manipulative as it could have been, or as the trailers make it look. It doesn't preach, it doesn't patronize, and the performances are strong enough that I'm recommending it. You know a movie is working when you recognize its tired cliches, but you don't care. It works even better when certain cliches that you expect to see don't even show up.
The Blind Side is not a great movie, and doesn't pretend to be. It's simple, it's effective, and it's bound to work on most audiences. It's heartfelt and funny, doesn't talk down to its audience, and seems to know what it's doing. When you consider that there are a lot of movies playing right now that can't even get one of those things right, that's a bigger feat than it may sound like at first.

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