There is just something in "The Blind Side"
that keeps it from being a better than average film and as much as I think about
it I am unable to put my finger on it.

All the acting is first
rate. I am a fan of Sandra Bullock and she plays the feisty, Scarlet O'Hara
type, accomplished woman, wife and mother perfectly, maybe too perfectly, as she
seems to do nothing wrong and is always there, no matter what time of day,
whenever she is needed. Oh, yes, I don't like her as a blond though the person
she plays, Leigh Ann Tuohy, is a real
woman, a blond, and this film is based on a true story. Tom McGraw is all charm and understanding as her
husband, as the owner of 78 Taco Bells and yet never seems to check on any of
them even though the script has a take on that. Let's say he has 78 outstanding
managers it just strikes me that a man as successful as he is would be too busy
to be home, 'around' so much.

Lily Collins, as the
teenage  daughter, is a delight and Jae Head is a little too precocious as the
son which is mainly due to the script though he is cute. Quinton Aaron, as the
soon to be football star, but as the film opens is a homeless, big Black boy
with a mother who is a drug addict, does an excellent job until at the end of
the film when they show the real Michael Oher they don't seem to jibe.

Kathy Bates, in a very minor role, makes the most of
it while Ray McKinnon as the school coach comes through with an accomplished air
and those playing various teachers are quite convincing. An actress, whose name
I didn't catch, plays an N.C.C.A. executive forcefully and is quite
beautiful.

There are many, too many, cameos by real football
coaches from all over the States and during the credits at the end of the film
there are many pictures of the real people portrayed by the actors which is
jarring as it hadn't been in other pictures I have seen that have done the same
thing, another minor thing that bothered me about "The Blind Side".

The story takes place in Memphis and though I lived
there for 10 years nothing looked familiar including the school, or where it
was, and I had never heard of The Village supposedly a major area in the
city.

This is a movie that
should have pulled me in emotionally but I never felt that involved and I still
can't figure out why. John Lee Hancock, the director and writer, did a fine job
on the former but was lacking in the latter. In all probability the book goes
more into the background of Michael Oher and into the story of a white family In
Memphis bringing a black boy into their house and treating him as a family. Yes
this is the Memphis of today, not yesterday, but those circumstances would not
be so readily acceptable after a few minutes of chat between Leigh Ann and 3 of
her friends.

"The Blind Side" should be
a feel good tear jerker but
misses. Would I recommend it? Yes if you are a Sandra Bullock fan and don't come
to the picture with too many expectations.