EW DVD Review: "The Blind Side"
By: Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
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When Sandra Bullock stood onstage at this year's Academy Awards, she looked out at the audience of her peers and asked, 'Did I really earn this, or did I just wear y'all down?'
It was easy to see what she meant. Ever since she vaulted to stardom as the girl next door heir to Julia Roberts with 1994's "Speed," Bullock has racked up a string of hit comedies. But when she ventured outside of her sassy, wise-cracking comfort zone, she's been less memorable. But with her wonderfully winning performance in "The Blind Side," she didn't have to wear anyone down at all. She earned her new statuette fair and square.
Based on a true story first told in book form by Michael Lewis, "The Blind Side" is the story of how one woman changed the life of one young man and while the almost too-good-to-be-true story could have easily been turned into a manipulative, saccharine tearjerker, Bullock's performance almost singlehandedly makes it something much better than that.
Bullock is Leigh Anne Touhy, a brassy, down-home Memphis mom, who notices a hulking and seemingly homeless African-American teenager at her son's school when no one else does or will. She's a rich, no-nonsense character for whom doing the right thing was never all that important until she lays eyes on Michael Oher. Oher, who's played as a soft spoken gentle giant by Quintin Aaron, has experienced a hard life of abuse and neglect. And Bullock's Leigh Anne, by taking him in as a member of her own football-loving family, helps him turn his life around. If all of this sounds calculated and cliché -- white woman saves African-American kid -- well, there is some of that. But it's hard to be cynical when there's a lump the size of a Granny Smith in your throat. No one's going to argue that "The Blind Side" was robbed for Best Picture. But when it comes to Best Actress, the Academy managed to get this one right.
Now for a look at what else is new on DVD: in "New Moon," the sequel to "Twilight" pits teenage vampires against teenage werewolves; in "Brothers," Tobey Maguire stars in a drama about the after-effects of war; and in "The T.A.M.I. Show," a legendary lost 1964 concert film features James Brown and the Rolling Stones.