Review By J1 Reporter Emily Salzman

This winter break, the Salzman residence was mildly hectic, however at times the atmosphere presented a time to sit back, relax and watch a movie. One family “tradition” we have when watching a movie is that we take longer choosing a movie that we all want to watch, then it takes to actually watch the movie. After only 30 minutes of back and forth disagreement, we decided on the 2009 movie “The Blind Side.”

This heartfelt movie is about Michael Oher, an African American teen who becomes homeless after being kicked out onto the streets, and is then forced to attend an all white school where he does not want to work, learn and feels very misunderstood. This story follows Michael’s journey where he is taken in by a white family who has two children at the same school as Michael. 

The family gets to learn more about his backstory and learns that although he is a big guy, Michael is very protective of those he loves. Soon he begins to open up at school and starts passing his classes with help from the teachers along with lots of hard work. This improvement of grades means that Michael is able to try out for the spring football season. He soon finds out that he has an acute passion for the sport and quickly becomes the star of his team. The story finishes with Michael getting into the college of his dreams, the University of Mississippi.

“The Blind Side” is a feel-good movie about overcoming obstacles and finding one’s way to success. I would give this movie 5 out of 5 stars because of the incredible story and the truth behind it, as well as the appearance of Sandra Bullock as one of the main characters. Unfortunately, this movie is only available on DVC, but it is definitely a good enough PG-13 movie for a family to invest in a copy of.

All in all, I would absolutely recommend this movie to anyone who loves heartfelt movies that make you feel something.