Movie Reviews  |  PG-13  |  View Trailer  |  Nov 20, 2009

The first trailer I saw for The Blind Side made it look like a serious drama with a heart about a woman who took in a homeless teen and taught him to be good at something he liked. The second trailer made it look like a comedic sports movie, playing circus music and slide whistles in the background. In reality, The Blind Side is a conflicted mix of both – two things that don’t blend well together in this case.

The Blind Side's first half focuses on the homeless teenage character Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron, Be Kind Rewind). With nowhere to go on a cold Memphis night, Michael is picked up by the wealthy Touhy family (parents Sean and Leigh Ann played by Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock) who take him under their wings and give him a future.

For anyone who knows sports, you know this as the story of the Baltimore Raven’s Michael Oher. As amazing as the story may be, the movie falls apart because it is such a bad telling of Oher’s experiences. While the movie is full of dramatic and comedic moments, they don’t harmonize well together. Just after a moment where your heart strings are tugged on and you’re finally starting to feel something, a bad one-liner is dropped, causing you to quickly lose the emotional connection that was just established. It’s this dichotomy repeated over and over again that ruins the movie. The acting is good, the movie is well made. It’s within the script that all is lost. The result is a movie barely over two hours, yet it feels more like three.

Although I’m just one person who strongly disliked  The Blind Side, people are going to like it. It’s that time of the year when people want feel-good flicks, and this one is more “feel-good” than most of those of the previous years – likeSeven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness. If you liked those examples or movies in that same vein, you ought to enjoy The Blind Side. If not, stay away. It’s sap and corn in it’s highest concentration.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.