The Blind Side (12A)

The Blind Side (12A)

If CHEESY American feel good flicks are your guilty pleasure, then look no further than The Blind Side - a true story of a teenager's rise from the ghetto to the NFL.

Michael Oher is a heartbreaking product of the Memphis projects, with a crack addicted mother and siblings all over the place, but nowhere to call home.

One day, Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by the ever annoying Sandra Bullock, spots him walking the streets in the freezing cold in a T-shirt and shorts and drags him into the car.

It's not just the car he's entering though, it's the family, as Michael goes to live with the Tuohy's and begins a life changing journey.

Michael is not your stereotypical angry ghetto kid though. He is quiet, thoughtful, gentle, insular and very protective.

He says very little, avoids confrontation like the plague and has no interest in sports - until that is, his school coach, his new little brother and even his surrogate mum get to work on him.

They quite literally train him up, both on and off the football field, to the extent that he becomes a huge hit with his football teammates and his tutors, and the country's top colleges come bearing scholarship offers.

It's all rather predictable and some things do grate. There is an annoying intro - something about the left tackle being the second most important position on an American football field - and there is a particularly annoying child actor - the cheeky faced know-it-all that is SJ (Jae Head).

But it is eminently watchable, heart-warming stuff - perfect Christmas movie for the family.