"Tell me what you're thinking, so that I know what I'm supposed to be bothered about."The Blind Side is well-written and handsomely directed. The screenplay and director take great pains to position the viewer to have maximum sympathy for Big Mike, the boy literally from the wrong side of town who is taken in by Sandra Bullock and her family and comes good as a football star. The film pushes emotional buttons effectively. What the film fails to avoid is typical Hollywood racial stereotyping, which comes across as incredibly patronising throughout. Did Sandra Bullock deserve her Oscar? She does give a finely-controlled, detailed performance in a characterisation that - like the film as a whole - is almost too polished and thus barely credible, even though it is based on a 'true story'. The movie's final shot - mother's pride or smug self-satisfaction? - sums up this uneasy feeling. The Blind Side is a TV-movie-of-the-week-life-affirming-true-story, elevated by its strong cast and strength of presentation on the screen.
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