So, no, I don’t think the movie is perfect. But neither do I think it should be discounted out of hand just because of “Precious.” “The Blind Side” isn’t as gritty as Lee Daniels’ excellent movie, but it isn’t supposed to be. It’s an enjoyable enough film in its own right.

And, yes, there’s a small chance I’m biased because Sandra Bullock’s Southern accent is not overdone. It’s. About. Time.

“It is able to excel beyond a made-for-TV movie because it has its heart in the right place, yet it still feels like one because the focus doesn’t hit similarly.”

I think that the first part of the sentence could describe “Precious,” rather than “The Blind Side,” personally, with the second part being exactly how I felt about the latter. I feel like the material was there, of course. I mean, the director made “The Rookie” for Pete’s sake. That was a TERRIFIC film. He’s stumbled on the ones following it, “The Alamo” and this. He CAN direct movies, but I feel he really overstepped into Sappyland with this one. It was the same with the recent “Amelia.”

“Call it post-’Precious’ syndrome, but the scenes that attempted to show Michael’s roots in poverty had remarkably little effect.”

You got that right. The whole film felt like a Disneyfied version of Daniels’s masterpiece.