Review: The Blind Side

Sandra Bullock, Sandra Bullock, Sandra Bullock. Yes most of the press on this film has been focused on Sandra Bullock's performance as Leanne Tuhey the woman who takes in a homeless kind-natured black football player and makes him a member of her family. But in fact Bullock's performance is more of a supporting one and the film's focus should really be on Quinton Aaron's Michael Ohr. Aaron's performances is very natural (and this is one of his first movies) although he's obviously way past high school age he is able to portray a wide-eyed innocent who finds it hard to understand things but becomes a stand-out star both in football and academia. The film does skip over the themes of race and instead focuses on the Tuheys raising this boy in the same house as a teenage girl. Instead this is all about redemption, triumph over adversity and the rest of the gobledygook.

To give her credit Bullock isn't bad and obviously has taken her cue from Julia Roberts' turn in Erin Brockovich she has died her hair and has a larger-than-life confidence which we don't see in her romcom roles. Her involvement is why people went to see the film and it became the highest grossing film with just one actress' name above the title. Elsewhere the rest of the Tuhey family, including country star Tim McGraw as the father and Phil Collins' daughter as teenager Collins, are very robotic and almost like living scenery while the Tuhey's young son is incredibly annoying and gives child actors a bad name. Kathy Bates pops up towards the end of the film as a tutor and gives it some extra pizzazz. The controversy about Bullock's motives at the end of the movie is overblown and fails to give the film that tension it wishes to create. At over two hours its way too long and there is hardly any football for a movie that claims to be a sports film. Without Bullock (and to a lesser extent Bates and McGraw) this would've been cosigned to straight-to-DVD territory but as it is its a more than adequate picture but certainly didn't deserve to feature in the Best Picture category at this year's Oscars.