Bullock's Film Leans on The Bland Side
Last week, Sandra Bullock’s Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side was released on DVD. Despite all the negative internet and movie chatter, I finally took the opportunity to check it out. Besides, if it was nominated for Best Picture and Sandra Bullock won an award for Best Actress (and a standing ovation), it couldn’t be that bad. Right?
For those of you who by some impressive media acrobatics are still unaware, The Blind Side is based on a real story about how the Tuohy family took in and adopted an African American teenager named Mike Oher. According to the film, Mike isn’t well educated, but he has defensive instincts, which makes him a natural fit for football. The film is intended as a feel-good family film, spotlighting Sandra Bullock as the feisty Tuohy matriarch, Leigh-Ann.
This would be a fine film if it didn’t toss logic out the window, fail to create any depth, or if it presented anything realistically (I’m sure this is where people will start hitting the ‘back’ button on their browser).
The Blind Side is written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo). I’m not familiar with Hancock’s short filmography, but it seems hit and miss and to lean on heartwarming or familiar. In a way, the problem with The Blind Side isn’t that it tries to be heartwarming or familiar, but that it tries so hard to be those things that it loses any nuance or personality. Yes, it tries to be “awe schucks” cute and “ain’t that something” inspiring, but it fails because it doesn’t earn what it’s striving for.
There is barely an arc in this film. Since there’s hardly anything in this film to spoil, I can tell you the film does gradually build toward Mike’s education and success as a football player (seriously, not a spoiler if you’ve seen any feel-good underachiever movies at all). But this arc is presented in an emotionally flat manner.
Sandra Bullock’s character is as much a lead as Mike, but her character has less of an arc than him. She’s immediately presented as rich, generous, devoted to her family, stubborn, and feisty. Her sole development is she ‘allows’ Mike to choose which college to go to. Before you get on my case about that being a spoiler let me remind you that it isn’t even what the movie is about and ask you this: were you really on the edge of your seat over which college Mike was going to choose? Is that really what you took from this movie?
Speaking of Bullock, her performance is fine. It is as good as you can hope for in these kinds of films, but the best performance by a female lead all year?! I had to look hard through Oscar’s history of Best Actress nominees to find a performance that lacked subtlety or depth as much as Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side. I came up with Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary… maybe. This role is cut from the Brockovich cloth, only it’s more like the polyester of that cloth – it’s a lower grade. How Bullock received a standing ovation for this performance is beyond me. My only conclusion is popularity (which would explain why Streep was the only other name seriously considered as competition). I’ve written about this particular issue previously and seeing Bullock’s performance only validated my previous claims. Her performance in Crash was more convincing than this – by this standard Bullock should’ve not only won an award, but also brought the Oscar ceremony’s roof down in 2007.
All the other characters in The Blind Side seemed to revolve around these two leads instead of adding layers to the situation Leigh-Anne creates. Her husband has no feelings about a homeless stranger living in his home. Mike apparently has a problem with men, but that’s never explored between him and Tim McGraw’s Mr. Tuohy. A relationship with the daughter and Mike is teased, but never dealt with. Every teacher at Mike’s school is either a one-note snob or is giving him a chance (all the while failing to teach Mike to read). The characters from the projects have an opportunity to bring intensity and realism to the proceedings, but end up being one-note bad guys (oh, except that one guy who ends up in the paper to make sure you got the point). The football coach apparently can’t train to save his life, because the success of the entire team depends on one left tackle – and he was trained by a kid. Oh, and apparently southern racists just need a little humility to shut them down completely.
Nobody gives us a reason why they care about Mike Oher. And every white person seems to make decisions they think is best for him throughout the movie without any resistance or conflict from Mike. Did I mention Mike apparently has an I.Q. of 80? That’s five more than Forrest Gump! But nobody treats him like he’s retarded.
The Blind Side isn’t a terrible movie. If you like your movies to gloss over relationships between characters, avoid any realistic depictions of racial issues, or lack any arc or character development then The Blind Side is a pleasant enough film. It is a film that claims it’s about real life, but is really just a gross distortion of life aimed at making you feel good. I’m just not sure which side I’m supposed to feel good about: people like Mike Oher or rich white people. Both are bland here.
Should you see it? Skip
5/10
The Blind Side is now on DVD and Blu-Ray
For those of you who by some impressive media acrobatics are still unaware, The Blind Side is based on a real story about how the Tuohy family took in and adopted an African American teenager named Mike Oher. According to the film, Mike isn’t well educated, but he has defensive instincts, which makes him a natural fit for football. The film is intended as a feel-good family film, spotlighting Sandra Bullock as the feisty Tuohy matriarch, Leigh-Ann.
This would be a fine film if it didn’t toss logic out the window, fail to create any depth, or if it presented anything realistically (I’m sure this is where people will start hitting the ‘back’ button on their browser).
The Blind Side is written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo). I’m not familiar with Hancock’s short filmography, but it seems hit and miss and to lean on heartwarming or familiar. In a way, the problem with The Blind Side isn’t that it tries to be heartwarming or familiar, but that it tries so hard to be those things that it loses any nuance or personality. Yes, it tries to be “awe schucks” cute and “ain’t that something” inspiring, but it fails because it doesn’t earn what it’s striving for.
There is barely an arc in this film. Since there’s hardly anything in this film to spoil, I can tell you the film does gradually build toward Mike’s education and success as a football player (seriously, not a spoiler if you’ve seen any feel-good underachiever movies at all). But this arc is presented in an emotionally flat manner.
Sandra Bullock’s character is as much a lead as Mike, but her character has less of an arc than him. She’s immediately presented as rich, generous, devoted to her family, stubborn, and feisty. Her sole development is she ‘allows’ Mike to choose which college to go to. Before you get on my case about that being a spoiler let me remind you that it isn’t even what the movie is about and ask you this: were you really on the edge of your seat over which college Mike was going to choose? Is that really what you took from this movie?
Speaking of Bullock, her performance is fine. It is as good as you can hope for in these kinds of films, but the best performance by a female lead all year?! I had to look hard through Oscar’s history of Best Actress nominees to find a performance that lacked subtlety or depth as much as Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side. I came up with Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary… maybe. This role is cut from the Brockovich cloth, only it’s more like the polyester of that cloth – it’s a lower grade. How Bullock received a standing ovation for this performance is beyond me. My only conclusion is popularity (which would explain why Streep was the only other name seriously considered as competition). I’ve written about this particular issue previously and seeing Bullock’s performance only validated my previous claims. Her performance in Crash was more convincing than this – by this standard Bullock should’ve not only won an award, but also brought the Oscar ceremony’s roof down in 2007.
All the other characters in The Blind Side seemed to revolve around these two leads instead of adding layers to the situation Leigh-Anne creates. Her husband has no feelings about a homeless stranger living in his home. Mike apparently has a problem with men, but that’s never explored between him and Tim McGraw’s Mr. Tuohy. A relationship with the daughter and Mike is teased, but never dealt with. Every teacher at Mike’s school is either a one-note snob or is giving him a chance (all the while failing to teach Mike to read). The characters from the projects have an opportunity to bring intensity and realism to the proceedings, but end up being one-note bad guys (oh, except that one guy who ends up in the paper to make sure you got the point). The football coach apparently can’t train to save his life, because the success of the entire team depends on one left tackle – and he was trained by a kid. Oh, and apparently southern racists just need a little humility to shut them down completely.
Nobody gives us a reason why they care about Mike Oher. And every white person seems to make decisions they think is best for him throughout the movie without any resistance or conflict from Mike. Did I mention Mike apparently has an I.Q. of 80? That’s five more than Forrest Gump! But nobody treats him like he’s retarded.
The Blind Side isn’t a terrible movie. If you like your movies to gloss over relationships between characters, avoid any realistic depictions of racial issues, or lack any arc or character development then The Blind Side is a pleasant enough film. It is a film that claims it’s about real life, but is really just a gross distortion of life aimed at making you feel good. I’m just not sure which side I’m supposed to feel good about: people like Mike Oher or rich white people. Both are bland here.
Should you see it? Skip
5/10
The Blind Side is now on DVD and Blu-Ray