The Blind Side

Winner of the 2010 Oscar for Best Actress, nominated for Best Picture. Sandra Bullock won her award for playing the strong-willed head of an affluent Southern family, who takes in and eventually adopts a poor African-American teenager from the ghetto. The teen shows boundless potential as an athlete, but, due to his lack of parental guidance or proper schooling, he is unable to read, perform in class, or even understand his role on a football field. Through Bullock's character's generosity and stern-but-loving guidance, he finds the ability to succeed in class, learn to play football, get accepted to school, and eventually get drafted to the NFL.

The film was a heart-warmer, to be sure, but was it really Oscar-worthy? Particularly in a year in which it stood against the vastly superior Precious, The Blind Side comes across, to me at least, as a condescending, sugary, white-washed version of the same story. Sugary and white-washed because of the happy ending (yes, I realize it was based on a true story, but still...), and condescending because of the implied message that it was only through the kindness of a rich white woman that this poor African-American was able to succeed. Yes, Michael Oher is shown to work hard and earn his acceptance into college and his eventual football career, but it is made clear that he wouldn't have gotten his chance to earn these things if not for the efforts of his adopted white family.

Granted, this was the finest performance that I have ever seen Sandra Bullock give, but it was simply not in the same category as the courageous, revelatory performances given by Gabourey Sidibe in Precious and Carey Mulligan in An Education. The consolation is that, given the strength of those two performances, it is easy to believe that both of these up-and-coming actresses will certainly have other opportunities to take home the prize.