Word: michaell
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Over the course of John Lee Hancock’s captivating new film—based on the true story told in Michael Lewis’s book, “The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game”—Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) transforms from a troubled orphan of the Memphis projects to a first-round draft pick in the NFL. Placed in a private, predominantly white high school on a whim by Steven’s father, Michael struggles to acclimate to the high academic standards of his new and foreign environment. While walking...
...Michael begins to improve in school, he is allowed to try out for sports and decides to join the spring football team. This pursuit quickly becomes a family affair; the Tuohy’s 10-year-old son, S.J., serves as a tyrannical fitness coach as well as a human dumbbell while Leigh Anne looks after Michael’s mental game. In response to the coach’s frustration at Michael’s apparent lack of aggression as blind-side offensive tackle, Leigh Anne marches onto the gridiron to interrupt practice, explaining to her son that...
Leigh Anne’s relationship with Michael forms the soul of the story. Both characters are limited in what they can verbally communicate to each other, but their silences convey their mutual struggle as they attempt to understand their respective circumstances. As Michael, relative newcomer Aaron is a strong yet vulnerable gentle giant—or, as Leigh Anne affectionately terms him, Ferdinand the Bull, the hero of his favorite children’s book. Bullock, too, wholeheartedly inhabits her role as pushy, driven, no-nonsense Southern wife cum interior decorator, complete with a perfect accent no doubt drawn...
...film eventually gives us the immense satisfaction of seeing footage of the real Michael Oher and the Tuohys at his 2009 draft to the Baltimore Ravens. The extent to which the real-life family resembles their cinematic counterparts is shocking, from the affection of their interactions to their individual fashion sensibilities. We are reminded with these final scenes how closely the film follows its real-life foundation, and how dedicated it remains to its mission: to let the events speak for themselves and relish the humorous moments along...
...athletes make snap decisions to skirt the rules in high-pressure situations. (Where was the global outcry when Michael Jordan pushed off on Utah's Bryon Russell before sinking the game-winning shot of the 1998 NBA Finals?) In this case, I was mad at Henry, but madder at the refs for missing the infraction, and enraged that soccer does not have some kind of replay rule to correct such obvious, easily reparable errors...