‘Blind Side’ blocks view of real biography

Earlier this year, Sandra Bullock starred in a movie called “All About Steve.” It appears that she was simply waiting her turn, as her newest movie, “The Blind Side,” could have easily been renamed “All About Sandra.”

The film, which tells the story of real-life Baltimore Raven Michael Oher, begins by explaining the importance of the offensive tackle to the game of football. It is the responsibility of the player in this position, namely Oher, to protect his quarterback’s “blind side.”

For the next two hours, the audience is shown Oher’s journey from the darkest corners of Memphis to the offices of the NCAA.

Although the film is a biography of Oher’s life, one could easily get confused and believe that the film is showcasing Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) instead. Of course, it makes sense that the woman who took Oher into her family would get considerable screen time, but it is taken too far, and his story suffers because of it.

Through the first half of the movie, the audience is subjected to thousands of big puppy dog eyes from Oher (Quinton Aaron) and an overabundance of “aw, shucks!” comedy. Apparently, this is supposed to make the story more heartwarming, but audience members may need to clean the cheese out of every orifice upon leaving the theater.

Also, for a person whose story is the central point of the film, Aaron is pretty useless. He has less than fifty lines of dialogue, with over half of those sentences being less than five words. Bullock might as well have just carried around a 6-foot-5-inch ventriloquist doll, so that she could take a little more of the spotlight in her Oscar campaign.

For those expecting a lot of football action, there will be disappointment. If one were to combine every scene that had something related to football (practice, games, someone wearing Under Armor, etc.), it would only take up about 20 or 30 minutes of the film.

However, those same individuals can take solace in the fact that several SEC coaches make an appearance in the film. On top of Nick Saban and Lou Holtz, former Tennessee head coach Philip Fulmer and former Ole Miss head coach and current Tennessee assistant head coach Ed Orgeron also play themselves as they try to recruit Oher to their respective schools.

One of the main parts of Oher’s story that is often overlooked is the investigation that the NCAA conducted concerning his choice to go to Ole Miss. The Tuohy’s are die hard Rebel fans, and it was wondered whether their involvement had pushed Oher to Mississippi instead of Tennessee and other schools. No matter which side of that issue one sits on, the film seems to handle the controversy pretty well.

The film knows its audience well and tries to create many inspirational moments, but director John Lee Hancock (“The Rookie”) slightly fumbles the story. Hancock has basically employed the strategy of painting-by-numbers, which makes for filmmaking that is ironically uninspirational.

All of this aside, “The Blind Side” is a decent family film that is sure to be successful during the Thanksgiving holiday.