THE BLIND SIDE (John Lee Hancock). 128 minutes. Opens Friday (November 20). For movie venues, times, and trailers, see Movies. Rating: NN
The Blind Side is inspirational goo that makes you wonder what happened to the somewhat controversial (and yes, uplifting) true story it’s based on.
[rssbreak]
It’s not like Michael Oher’s life isn’t prime movie material. The Baltimore Ravens star was born to a junkie mother in the projects and later adopted by Mississippi’s well-to-do white Touhy family.
Sandra Bullock plays the Touhy matriarch, Leigh Anne, with an often funny, down-South sass that carries the movie at far as it goes. Looking like the black marshmallow man, Quinton Aaron plays Oher as a softie with a constant pout (yawn). He’s not a character so much as a submissive puppy dog, lacking any real edge or sense of ghetto-raised danger.
In a movie that should be rife with it, racial tension is either ignored or sidelined to bit characters. There’s barely a trace of awkwardness in the Touhy home.
It just goes to show that the filmmakers lack the nerve to touchdown on the issues that Oher and the Touhy family so courageously tackled.
