An average movie

Beforehand, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since it was a huge success at the box-office and was nominated for several academy awards, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, I thought it was a decent sport drama based on a true story but not much more than that, I'm afraid. I mean, even though the directing was solid and the actors were all right, it never challenged the rules of the genre and there was, above all, a terrible lack of nuances. For example, even though Michel Oher was supposed to be the hero of this tale, he was portrayed as completely clueless throughout the whole thing and, apparently he would have never been successful without the help of several white people (the school teacher, Sandra Bullock, his 'white' brother, his 'white' sister, his tutor, even the clueless coach stood up for him during the game,...). At the same time, none of the black people did provide any help whatsoever (the youth in his old neighborhood were all gangsters-like type, his biological mother was a crack addict, his brother that we meet didn't even have any dialogue, the black man who gave him shelter at first eventually threw him out, even the woman at the end during the interrogation was black,...). I'm not saying that it was a racist movie, of course not, but it was definitely not subtle. It is like the main character, Michael Oher. He was portrayed like some helpless Forrest Gump figure when he was actually the one who came from nothing and became a NFL player. As a matter of fact, the real Michael Oher knew very well how to play football and was definitely not some kind of retarded. I could go on and on about this but those things are pretty much inherent to this genre and this movie was not a bad example but just a typical one. And what about Sandra Bullock? I have to admit it, it was indeed one of her better performances but it was still nothing really mind-blowing. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent sport drama dealing with some decent people who all try to do the right thing and, if you are into this kind of stuff, it is definitely enjoyable. To conclude, I do think it is rather overrated but it is still worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

6/10