This movie came out of nowhere, staring an unknown, a country music star and a Hollywood starlet seemingly passed her film opening prime, all the elements that make for a decent direct to DVD film or a really good Hallmark movie of the week. Thank goodness some one had faith in the story, because it has yielded a very moving and inspirational football film, one that has made a boat load of money and captured the heart's of most of the American movie going audience.
Micheal Oher's story is almost a fairy tale. A young boy with no means, comes from a broken home and through one lucky circumstance after another is allowed into an affluent christian private school and soon finds himself on the couch of the well-off Tuohy family who help him get his grades up and become the football phenom he was clearly destined to be. There are undoubtedly scores of creative licenses taken with the story, but what is on film is the kind of inspirational film that really makes you want to do good by others.
While the story elements are exactly perfect for this type of film, there are a few problems that keep this film from being more then just a good time at the theater. Most of the dramatic beats of the film are telegraphed a mile away by the editing and tone of the scenes, and the over all arch of the tale is about as generic and cliched as you expect it to be. The score, by Cohen Bros. go to composer Carter Burwell, is serviceable but really lacks the inspirational punch that makes other films of this ilk more endearing and the quality of the actors outside of the main core of characters is noticeably shoddy. These are not bad actors per say, but they are overshadowed by some really award worthy stuff by the leads.
Which does bring me to the most pleasant surprise in the film. People talk about Sandra Bullock's performance as Oscar caliber, and I agree fully, but the rest of the Tuohy family is also uniformly excellent. Tim McGraw is proving that he has actual acting chops in a role that could have easily been "that guy behind Sandra Bullock" but he brings a real quality to the Tuohy patriarch that helps make the family unit believable. The other stand out is young Jae Head, he plays the youngest, S. J. Tuohy. As the precocious young whippersnapper he is appropriately cute, but when he takes on the roll of Micheal Oher's football coach over the summer he brings a whole new level of fun to an otherwise standard montage, this continues throughout the film as S.J. becomes Micheal's defacto agent in the recruiting scenes that litter the second half of the film.
There is an element of the film that reached me far more then the average film goer and that has an impact on my feelings on the film. This is a film that is all the more enjoyable because of my knowledge and love of football. Football is the very DNA of the film, from the opening moments that relieve one of the most disturbing plays in Monday Night Football History, to the recruiting scenes by a who's who of (ex) SEC coaches. There is a lot in this film for the football fan. I have no idea if anyone else would enjoy seeing Lou Holtz or Nick Saben in their former coaching colors trying to woo the talented youngster, but I got a kick out of it.
In all this film is everything it is advertised to be, sweet, emotional, inspirational and most importantly fun. The film has its flaws, but more then enough positives to make up for them.
I give this film 4 first round draft picks out of 5.
