In the film The Blindside, directed by John Lee Hancock, 2009, a character who learnt valuable lessons was Leigh Anne. These lessons were, money doesn’t make you happy and your friends won’t always approve of what you’re doing even though you know its right.
This was shown through a range of verbal and oral features, such as dialogue; and visual features, such as, body language which was shown through a range of shots and angles.An important lesson learnt by Leigh Anne was happiness doesn’t just come from being well off. Leigh Anne was well off as her husband, Sean Tuohy, owned a Taco bell franchise. One night when she finished reading to Michael, Leigh Anne was smiling with a content look on her face, a zoom out shot setting the scene, and she turned to look at Sean and told him ‘I'm just happy. Really happy… It has everything to do with Michael’.
Despite the amount of money that the Tuohy’s had, or the big house with nice furniture, at that moment none of it mattered to Leigh Anne because she knew that even without all the money she would still have all the happiness because of the love she felt for MichaelAnother key lesson learnt by Leigh Anne was your friends won’t always approve of what you’re doing even though you know its right. Leigh Anne learnt this lesson at a fancy restaurant when she was out to lunch with friends. Her friends made insulting comments about Michael and we see a close up of her annoyed face as she stuck up for Michael. One of Leigh Anne’s acquaintances sarcastically told her to adopt Michael and when Leigh Anne said ‘it doesn’t make much sense he’s turning 18 soon’ her friends all looked shocked and disapproving not realising she was seriously considering officially making Michael part of the family.
The director, John Lee Hancock, helped me better understand the character of Leigh Anne Tuohy by the lessons of, happiness isn’t all about money and do what you know is right even though your friends don’t think it is, that she learnt. This was conveyed through the cinematic effects of shot and angles, such as, zooming in on people reactions and through oral and verbal features for example, the way Leigh Anne and her friends conversed.
