Feel-good 'Blind Side' flits past the clichés

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Tackling life

Michael Lewis has become one of America's most celebrated writers through informative and incredibly original books of nonfiction. From "Liar's Poker" (1998), a hilarious and devastating portrait of greed on Wall Street, to "Moneyball" (2003), an examination of a revolution in major league baseball, his books have been must-reads. The latest, "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game," takes Lewis' readers on a journey into some of the darkest and most baffling corners of American football and American life.

"The Blind Side" begins simply enough. Lewis traces the financial evolution of football from its primitive beginnings to its multilayered corporate structure of today -- and traces the increasing sophistication of game strategy as well. Most writers would have focused on the quarterback, but in a typical stroke of originality, Lewis homes in on one of football's least known but perhaps most important: the left tackle. The left tackle is the offensive lineman responsible for protecting the quarterback's "blind

'First time feeling the love of an audience'

The applause was thunderous. Of course John Lee Hancock, the director of "The Blind Side," was pleased. But his discovery, the young man whose life could change in much the way his character's life changes in the movie, was stunned.

"First time seeing the movie, first time feeling the love of an audience for the movie," says Quinton Aaron, 25, who plays a teen rescued from homelessness and poverty by a Memphis mom (Sandra Bullock). "People coming up to shake my hand, taking pictures. Autograph signing. I'm trying to adapt."

"You're happy to give a role like this, a chance like this, to somebody like him," Hancock beams. "He's going to handle this sudden fame thing fine."

Oscar odds and ends and facts and figures

Interesting oddities, facts, figures and trivia related to this year's Academy Awards nominees:

IN RARE AIR: "Up" is only the second animated feature film to receive an Oscar nomination for best picture. "Beauty and the Beast" was the first, nominated in 1991.

A BIG WIN BREWING?: Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker,") is just the fourth woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar and only the second American woman to receive the nod. The other, Sofia Coppola, was nominated in 2003. If Bigelow wins she would be the first woman to receive the award.

Oscar nominees for lead actor and actress

Contending for the Oscar actor honors are: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman and Jeremy Renner. Contending for actress honors are: Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan.

LEAD ACTOR

JEFF BRIDGES "Crazy Heart"

'Blindness' envisions a cold, grim world

'Blindness is a gift of the ugly," Julianne Moore observes in "Blindness," as a self-proclaimed "leader with vision," literally and figuratively. As the only character who can see, Moore makes for an unlikely and unwilling heroine.

Married to an ophthalmologist (a marvelous Mark Ruffalo) who just happens to treat the first victim of a worldwide epidemic of "white blindness," Moore's character stands by her man. She accompanies him when he, too, loses his sight and joins the humbled hordes of everyday folk thrown together by this sudden affliction.

Nameless yet central to the action, the stoic couple provides the voices of reason and calm in an otherwise horrifying sea of panic and resignation. Both performances are consistently compelling; their dedication and selflessness make the rest of the story and its petty rivalries pale by comparison.