“The Blind Side” depicts the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard, and with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.

The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw is a heartwarming movie not to be missed this holiday season. While Bullock and McGraw give good performances, Quinton Aaron (Michael) and Jae Head (SJ) have breakthrough performances. The movie is long, about 2.5 hours and is slow to get started. Overall a very heartwarming tale of a family that reached out to someone for no reason other than to help (or so the movie tells us).

I found myself growing a bit antsy in my seat in the beginning due to the fact the movie has such a slow build. If you are the type of movie goer that enjoys story building, you will enjoy this most of all. I on the other hand, prefer a movie that gets right to the point and often times wish movies would start from the end and work backwards. I will say this by the end of the movie I was crying tears of happiness in seeing that one person can make a difference in another’s life.

Other than the movie starting slowly the only other complaint I have is that when Lou Holtz was featured in the movie recruiting for the University of South Carolina he asked Michael to wear the “Carolina Red”. Well since I am fourth generation South Carolina grad this offended me to no end…..Lou Holtz who coached at South Carolina should know better we are Carolina Garnet! Maybe that is why he went to Mississippi State and Lou is no longer our coach.

caroline@ballantynescoop.com