Thursday, November 28, 2019

The Blind Side

For this year’s Thanksgiving movie review, I thought I would look like 2009 biographical film about Ravens football player, Michael Oher, “The Blind Side.”

Leigh Paatsch started her review by saying, “A vision worth seeing if you can look past the obvious. Based on a sincerely inspirational true story, The Blind Side pours its audience a straight shot of full-strength uplift, with a corn-syrup chaser on the side.”

Not everyone will have the ability to take all of this in, but the creators of this film look like they don’t really care. Paatsch said, “As a work of middle-of-the-road entertainment for middle America, The Blind Side unashamedly revels in the hokey, the homespun and the heartfelt.” Very powerfully, as it turns out.

Paatsch described, “At the centre of the familiar, yet fascinating feelgood tale told here are two radically contrasting figures. Summarised in Hollywood shorthand, one could be described as a plus-size Forrest Gump, while the other is a posh Erin Brockovich.”

Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron, is a homeless teen, just one of a handful of children projected alone in a terrible society by a drug-addicted single mother.

A friendly tall person that is one the spectrum and a dishonestly unemotional personality, Michael gets enrolled into a very good Christian school in Memphis.

One of the sports coaches thinks Michael might have the look of a great defensive football player. Michael thinks he might be able to quietly sleep in the gym at night.

That will not go under the radar of Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock. Paatsch said, “Once this well-heeled wife of a fast-food tycoon gets wind of Michael’s plight, she throws open the doors of her McMansion and sets about getting the kid back on his feet.”

Leigh Anne’s husband (country singer Tim McGraw) and children (Lily Collins and Jae Head) know better than to go against with, as Paatsch described: “her when she’s on feisty fairy-godmother form.” The sincere friendship and support the whole family gives to Michael leave a huge impact on the audience as his eventual rise to football popularity.

Paatsch said, “Performances here are perfunctory across the board. Though Bullock is exceptionally well-cast, there is certainly no "wow" factor to her work that warrants red-hot favourtism for the next Best Actress Oscar. Bullock’s unknown castmate Aaron achieves just as much in a far tougher role.”

Hands down, “The Blind Side” has its own amount of flaws. The script can be easily pointed out for everything but not pointing out the racial problems that had to have made Michael accomplishing his dream so much harder.

Paatsch noted, “In what is clearly the film’s worst (and painfully whitest) scene, Leigh Anne goes to lunch with a flock of socialites who condescendingly peck at her charitable efforts with Michael.”

“Honey, you are changing that boy’s life,” says one of the nicer women at the table.

Leigh Anne responds happily as you fear she would: “No…he’s changing mine.”

Paatsch said, “There are several ouch-worthy moments like this in The Blind Side, but they are spaced just far enough apart not to devalue the real worth of Michael Oher’s story.”

If the film influences even a little group of the audience to be nicer organized to other people, then it looks like they have done that.

As good as the movie is, when you look at the real story of Michael Oher, it feels like they just insulted the man. In reality, he is a very intelligent man and the family did take him in, but it wasn’t because he had nowhere to go. He still had a home that he could go to. Michael Oher did not have any disabilities or anything because, like already mentioned, he is very intelligent. However, this is still a feel good movie that you should watch on Thanksgiving, but I think if you just watch it once, that would be enough. However, if you can watch it more than once, good for you.

Happy Thanksgiving my online readers! I hope everyone had a good dinner tonight. Look out tomorrow for the finale of “Highlander Month.”

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