Review: The Blind Side (12A)***

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The Blind Side manages to be a combination of all of the above while simultaneously giving Sandra Bullock a shot at Oscar glory which – surprise, surprise – actually came true in typical Tinseltown style.

Bullock is the feisty, rich middle-class white mommy who takes in a hulking, down-and-out, barely literate black kid and steers him towards something he can achieve – glory on the football field.

Soon Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is astonishing everyone with his prowess. Big Mike's escape route is entirely down to Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock) who bulldozes through everything in her way to achieve what she can for this gentle, childlike loner.

This sugar-coated hybrid of Erin Brockovich and Remember the Titans is a star vehicle for an actress who for years toiled on the periphery of serious acting in a string of comedies that played up to her image as a kooky sexpot.

The Blind Side allows Bullock to exercise some serious acting muscles in a true story given finesse by Hollywood. Seriously, you couldn't make it up.

Big Mike is one of life's losers. His mother is a drug addict and a drunk. His father has long since vanished. His neighbours are dangerous gang members and his friends are non-existent. This gentle giant has nothing going for him until Leigh Anne sees his potential. Yet even the football coach has his doubts after seeing Mike's first pitiful attempts on the field: "Looks like Tarzan. Plays like Jane," he quips.

Yet while this is undoubtedly a painting-by-numbers production line drama tailored for the American multiplex circuit, it nonetheless presents Bullock with a prime opportunity to inhabit a wholly plausible variation on the character of the pushy mom.

As a clunky message movie – that everyone has value and no one should be arbitrarily thrown on the scrapheap – it delivers, but it lays it on in thick, gooey fashion.

A heartbreaking weepie with a happy ending that can be spotted from several miles, The Blind Side is a manipulative crowd-pleaser of epic proportions.