After receiving an Oscar nomination for best movie as well as best actress, I had to check out this movie. After watching it, I can see why it was nominated. It’s a feel good story about family and poverty, and it’s also tied to American’s favorite sport: football.
It’s about the story of a white rich family who adopts a poor African-American young man who goes on to become a famous football player. People could read too much into it, and think that it’s a metaphor for white people saving black people. But since this is a real story, I don’t think that’s the message of the movie.
This is just about the Tuohy family and especially Leigh Anne who were open minded and generous enough to accept a stranger in their family, somebody who on the surface has no common background with them. It also wasn’t easy because Mike is not very extrovert or charming, not easy to like. But they saw beneath his surface and recognized a kind soul.
The first to befriend Mike is the young SJ, which makes sense since kids have less prejudices and have more trust. Their relationship brought the most laughs for me. Because of that, Leigh Anne also saw the potential in Mike, so she just decided to help him.
Sandra Bullock’s performance is definitely the best of her career, so I have no problems with her nomination. She is very subtle in this movie, she doesn’t have big crazy scenes like usual. But I like that there are also no big dramatic scenes with people crying and emotional. It’s all very realistic and subtle, which is always a good thing.
I even liked the few scenes Mike had with his adopted sister (Collins), which are very delicate. I like that Leigh Anne and Collins address that issue, because it certainly was in my wife’s mind since the beginning.
Most of the scenes related to football went over my head, since I don’t even know the rules. So all the cameos from real people in football world were lost on me. I still appreciated when Leigh Anne helped Mike focus his ability on the game.
Overall, I did enjoy this movie, though in a few instances it nearly went into TV movie of the week territory.
Rating: 3.5 Stars