Sandra Bullock is as subtle as a shin splint in the football drama The Blind Side. Half the time it's like she's one of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. The rest of the movie she's Burgess Meredith in Rocky.
Understated it's not, but the fiery, flamboyant combination should pay off handsomely for the 45-year-old actress who, despite still being America's sweetheart, has got a lot of mileage this year from channeling iron-willed women.
First Bullock played the hard-charging executive in this past summer's romantic comedy The Proposal. Now she plays Leigh Ann Tuohy, a pistol-packing Memphis steel magnolia whose guidance and determination helped transform a homeless African-American teenager into a pro football star.
If it sounds like Hollywood hogwash, it is, in fact, a true story, adapted from the non-fiction book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which chronicled how Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) was taken in by Leigh Anne, her understanding husband, Sean (Tim McGraw) and sweet kids Collins (Lily Collins) and SJ (Jae Head).
The Tuohys cross paths with Michael because he's attending the same Christian school as their children -- thanks to a football coach (Ray McKinnon) who spotted Michael's size and speed and cajoled administrators into letting the troubled young man enroll.
Trouble is, once he's accepted he shows little interest in or aptitude for even basic academics. Worse, his home life is a pitiable. Taken from his drug-addled mother at a young age, he has ping-ponged from one home to the next ever since. Now, at 16, he is neglected and futureless.
This all changes once Leigh Anne enters his life. She gives him a home -- first a sofa in their mansion (she's an interior decorator, while Sean owns a chain of fast-food restaurants) and then a bedroom. More significantly, she pushes him academically.
The reaction from Leigh Anne's friends runs the gamut, from bemusement to bewilderment to patronizing approval.
"You're changing that boy's life," says one to Leigh Anne.
"No, he's changing mine," she fires back.
It's deep-fried corn, to be sure -- you have to wonder how much writer-director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) has glossed over since the movie ties up its dramatic threads so neatly -- but The Blind Side isn't looking to score points for nuance. (A third-act threat, in which the Tuohys' motivations are questioned, feels tacked on.)
The Blind Side is only ambitious enough to be a solid, earnest -- if long -- crowd pleaser. And audiences will likely respond. As Michael's grades rise, so does his fame on the field. These days, the real Michael is an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.
For his part, Aaron hints at Oher's gift for self-preservation despite a script that reduces him to a supporting role in his own story. Instead it's Bullock who puts the fire in The Blind Side's belly. It's all Aaron and everyone else can do to get out of her way.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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