The Blind Side (PG-13, 2009)

Before he became an All-American college football star and an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) was a brawny-but-tender teen attending a Christian school in Memphis with no roof over his head or family to support him. In THE BLIND SIDE, he's soon befriended by S.J. and Collins Tuohy (Jae Head and Lily Collins), children of wealthy fast-food franchise owner Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) and his decorator wife Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock). Leigh Anne makes it her mission to remake Michael's life, inviting him into the Tuohys' home and, later, into the family itself. A real future for Michael appears on the horizon in the form of football, a sport for which his build and protective instincts seem perfectly suited. But first he needs to get his grades up -- and his head in the game.

Based on a book by journalist Michael Lewis chronicling the real Oher’s experiences, The Blind Side manages to inspire despite its broad-strokes approach to characterization. Bullock’s winning effort paves the way; her Leigh Anne disarms both Oher and audiences despite a sassiness that edges on caricature -- there's real vulnerability behind Leigh Anne’s type-A façade. Aaron’s take on Oher is a little bit more textbook, but when he smiles, you forget for a moment that he’s playing a role and really imagine him as the young Oher, abandoned but not lost.

Director John Lee Hancock could have explored the challenges that Leigh Anne and Michael faced as they tried to meld their divergent backgrounds with more complexity. Did Oher have any doubts? Was everyone at the school really that embracing? Instead, Hancock goes for the superficial. But the film has plenty of heart, something Hancock appears to have a knack for (he also helmed The Rookie, an even more heartwarming drama based on a real-life athlete). Still, he’s in danger of too much sentimentality here -- that and condescension. The result is a straightforward and entertaining film, if you can ignore, yes, the blind spots.