Review of The Blind Side (2009) by Chads — 21 Nov 2009

Oh, they're boosters. In a funny way, this bit of late-breaking information functions the same as the "he's dead" revelation in M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense", because it forces the moviegoer to reexamine all the preceeding scenes under a new frame of reference.

Whereas Shyamalan situated the Bruce Willis character sans conversation among the living, this filmmaker too stages scenes that hide the truth in plain sight, then blindsides the moviegoer with a game-changing moment of epiphany.

Here, it's in a surprisingly terse scene between Michael(Quintin Aaron) and a NCAA investigator, in which the Touhys are cast in a surprisingly unfavorable light, complicating the film's emotional uplift ever so slightly.

Good samaritans or hell-bent boosters? Although the Touhy's are never labeled as such, the evidence of their vested interest in a good left tackle is right in your face all along. An Ole Miss football game on Thanksgiving Day dominates the Touhy household, in which the family gathers around the television from the sofa with their turkey-stuffed plates.

When Leigh-Ann(Sandra Bullock) observes her charge sitting by himself at the dining room table, she shuts off the game, and has them join their permanent guest for a more traditional familial holiday arrangement.

This is the moment, perhaps, that Leigh-Ann starts to understand how their football-centric lifestyle might need some toning down. (Even the Touhys' young son is put to work as Michael's trainer.

) To what extent is her paternalism motivated by a rabid love for Rebel football? Unfortunately, "The Blind Side" bails the University of Mississippi alumnists out, during an exchange where Leigh-Ann and Sean(Tim McGraw) suss out their motivations with a proper amount of self-flaggelation, so we don't have to.

But in a telling scene, Miss Sue(Kathy Bates), Michael's tutor, tries to recruit the future NFL star away from hated SEC rival Tennessee with a crazy story about Neyland Stadium(where the Volunteers play its home games), which validates the possibility that a well-to-do couple would feed and clothe an offensive line prospect for their beloved team.