Sandra Bullock won the Razzie for worst performance of the year for her part in All About Steve. Did she deserve the Best Actress Oscar that she won a day later for her role in John Lee Hancock’s film, the true story of an American football star who, thanks to her character, triumphed over all the odds? Hardly. But you don’t resent it too much since, as Leigh Anne Tuohy, she is at her freewheeling best rather than her striving worst.
Leigh is a rich, Southern woman, who comes across a huge and impassive homeless black boy called Michael (the impressive Quinton Aaron) and offers him a bed for the night.
Despite everything, he becomes one of the family, gets a tutor (Kathy Bates) and is encouraged by Leigh to fulfil his potential on and off the football field. If this wasn’t largely based on fact, you wouldn’t believe it for a moment — and I’m sure some dramatic licence has been taken.
Never mind. Sentimental as it turns out, the film works well as an inspirational Hollywood drama. And Bullock floats through it tetchily but somehow manages to show that, as her husband (Tim McGraw) says, she’s got a heart of gold when you peel a few layers off her skin.
The football scenes, kept to a decent but not overwhelming length, are good: big Mike learns to throw his weight around, and the pleadings of six or seven apparently real-life coaches to grab him for their university teams (if only he can pass the exams) are fun. So too is Bullock’s silently disbelieving face when Bates says to her on applying for the tutoring job: "There’s just one thing I must tell you — I’m a Democrat."
That’s the best line in a film which, despite initial doubts, has cleaned up in America. Maybe it’s a sign that Obama won’t have it all his own way when applying for re-election. Not if Leigh goes into politics, that is.
The Blind Side
Cert: 12A
