“The Blind Side” may be the most manipulative film all year. Some have criticized “Precious,” the other “black” film this year, for manipulating audiences through unfathomable hardship. But I will take the tragedy of that brave film over the very fathomable hardship of this one, a wholesomely safe movie that tugs the audience’s heartstrings as though they were attached to marionettes.
Sadly, “The Blind Side” is not the most cliché movie I’ve seen from 2009, but it’s the kind of highly orchestrated familiarity that attracts those wit white guilt, the black audience and the juvenile type. There’s a group of token rich white women that serve as Sandra Bullock’s friends that are only seen gossiping at an exclusive restaurant in front of overpriced salads. I can imagine this group greatly enjoying “The Blind Side,” discussing it as if it was a mature film and as if they now knew something about cinema.
In reality, this is a film with zero character development and a highly accessible plot that loses all of the true story’s authenticity. It’s the heartwarming story of Michael “Big Mike” Oher (Quinton Aaron), a drifter foster child who’s brought in and cared for by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock). Tuohy pays for his education, gets him to go out for football and until he is eventually drafted by the NFL as recent as last year.
It’s important to take this true story with a grain of salt, because this definitely is a story in which lives were changed, families grew and dreams were accomplished, but we get very little of that here. This is just a movie designed to make the widest audience possible feel warm and fuzzy inside, and the result is fairly tepid.
Bullock’s character is a snappy Southern Bell that always gets her way, and there’s a lame, gooey line of dialogue between her and her friends that goes, “This boy is changing your life! No, he’s changing mine.” But he’s not, is he? Leigh Anne remains a spitfire throughout the entire movie. Never is her confidence truly shaken by Michael’s actions. Such a development would likely be too challenging. And from the first moment we realize that she is a firm beeotch, she’s about to bring Michael home.
Where is the back-story? Where is the growth? It’s missing from Michael too, whose portrayal by Quinton Aaron is virtually nonexistent. He has less dialogue than any character in the film, and the screenplay requires him to do no more than approach everything slowly and with a hesitantly fearful raised eyebrow.
Here is a misunderstood character with thoughts, feelings and emotions that are deeper, more complex and more interesting than his white counterparts, and “The Blind Side” trades them in for token white lady concerns that he might rape Leigh Anne’s daughter, an infectiously cute training montage with Leigh Anne’s toddler son and Leigh Anne being sharp as a tack.
“The Blind Side” is a film with a great story that gives its characters nothing to work with because any attempt to get to the root of the real drama contained within Michael’s inspirational claim to fame would be too provocative for the mainstream.
At least there is Bullock, giving a truly convincing performance as a tough Southern whiplash that doesn’t patronize or stereotype the personality. She is great at portraying a character that need not be portrayed.
2 ½ stars
2 thoughts on “The Blind Side”