The Blind Side
directed by John Lee Hancock
starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron
showing nightly at the Loma in Socorro

The Blind Side features Sandra Bullock in an atypical role from her usual 'girl next door' casting in chick-flicks. Instead, this film allows Ms. Bullock to show off her talents as Leigh Ann Touhy, an upper crust Republican housewife from Mississippi who takes an interest in a brawny African-American teen named "Big Mike" (played by Quinton Aaron), with whom she has a chance meeting in which she learns that he's essentially homeless and parentless. With a larger than life heart, and a smaller than normal fear of the unknown, Ms. Tuohy (Bullock) gives Big Mike a place on her couch to 'crash' for the night. One night turns into two, two nights into a week, a week into a month, and before long the troubled teen has become a de-facto member of the Tuohy family.

The football coach at the local Christian high school takes an interest in Big Mike after seeing his hulking frame sauntering on campus with the Tuohys. Ms. Touhy leverages the coach's interest in Big Mike's bulk to her advantage, and gets the coach to assist in her efforts to get Big Mike enrolled at the school, despite his poor academic track record, and his reading difficulties stemming from his largely parentless upbringing. With the football coach's help, Ms. Touhy succeeds in getting Big Mike admitted to the school. As it turns out, Big Mike is not just big, but also athletic; after a few false starts, he turns out to be a stellar football player, ultimately recruited by many of the top colleges in the nation.

I won't spoil the rest of the film, but it has several interesting twists and turns, some of which seem almost too story-book to be true. Yet, as the saying goes: the truth is often stranger than fiction. The film is based on the true story of Michael Oher, a.k.a. Big Mike, who now plays in the NFL as offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.

The film is at times a bit corny, but still manages to be heartwarming. All in all, it's certainly an amazing story (all the more so given that it's based in fact not fiction) with an upbeat message about people overcoming prejudices, overcoming odds, and breaking through barriers. As such, it's worth watching and I can (semi-) enthusiastically recommend it. I'd give it 3.5 chili peppers out of 5.