This movie is absolutely wonderful. It’s a great family film. It’s so uplifting and warm, it will make you laugh and cry. And what’s even more incredible, it’s a true story. To think that there’s this much good in the world simply is the most heartwarming story of the holiday season. The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Tuohy. Grounded in the direct, disarming truth of their experience, the movie is brilliant. This could be Bullock’s award-winning role. Just as Julia Roberts reached a turning point and a high in her acting career with Erin Brockovich, Bullock could well be doing the same in The Blind Side. She is perfect as the saucy, direct Leigh Anne who has a heart of gold. (Bullock actually lived with the Tuohys and shadowed them in order to understand Leigh Anne’s character better.) One night, Leigh Anne sees Oher (Quinton Aaron) walking alone on a cold, rainy Memphis night and spontaneously invites him to stay the night with her family. She puts him on her sofa because her guest room is littered with boxes. (Let me just say here that Quinton Aaron is superb in the role of Michael Oher.) I love him.

Leigh Anne’s precocious youngest son, S.J., played by Jae Head, is adorable. He steals every scene he’s in. S.J. immediately befriends Michael and takes him under his wing as his “big brother.”  Lily Collins plays Collins Tuohy and she’s beautiful and a great, encouraging sister.

If viewers may experience a twinge of misgiving about the issues of race and class that are alluded to in The Blind Side, they can’t help but be enormously entertained and moved by its irresistible story. I didn’t see an issue with race. I saw love on a grander scale – one much larger that has nothing to do with skin color, religion, politics or socioeconomic status. This is a story about the authentic, compassionate response to vulnerability and need. It’s a story about family and it’s a story about love, above all.

The movie’s title is a football reference, which the voiceover of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) explains at the beginning. Michael Oher (Quenton Aaron) is sweating out a tough but unspecified situation in an office, when we flash back a few years and meet him as Big Mike. An African-American staff member at a mostly white Christian private school in Memphis, Tennessee, is trying to get his athletic son into the school, and the school’s coach also spots some athletic potential in Big Mike, granting him a scholarship. Big Mike has terrible trouble keeping up in school, and when his friend’s family stops helping him out, he is virtually homeless — sleeping in the school gym, eating popcorn left there after events, wearing the same thin clothes daily, which he washes out by hand in a Laundromat.

Big Mike is an oddity at the private school, but he is a gentle soul. When the Tuohys take him in, they encourage him and provide the first real family he has ever known. The Tuohys finally become Michael’s legal guardian. They’re very much into sports both as former participants and current fans, so they encourage him in football and in schoolwork so he can possibly win a football scholarship to college. S.J. takes on the role of a personal coach to teach Big Mike about football and these are great scenes in the movie. Will Michael succeed, or will he return to his neglectful, drug-addicted mother in the projects? 

The Blind Side is based on the nonfiction account of Michael Oher by Michael Lewis, which was adapted by the film’s director, John Lee Hancock. If you’ve read the book or know about Oher, the outcome of the movie won’t surprise you. But that’s not the point — this is a movie about characters and relationships, and the effects of great acts of kindness. In essence, it’s about love. Bullock, Aaron and Head are the highlights of the film. Tim McGraw plays Sean Tuohy, Leigh Anne’s husband, and he is perfect in that role. Kathy Bates, as Miss Sue, has a small but heartfelt role as a tutor. Her greatest line was when she had to explain to them that she was a Democrat.

The Touhy adults are actually Ole Miss alumni. Hancock does have some fun casting the college football coaches in The Blind Side –  they all play themselves. Some of the coaches are not exactly great actors, but the then-LSU coach, Nick Saban, was terrific.

Many of you probably already know Michael Oher’s story. I didn’t, but all of my brothers did. Michael Oher ends up being signed by the Baltimore Ravens. Honestly, it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. Take your family to see it. You’ll love it.