The Blind Side depicts one of those true stories about which people say “if this were made into a movie, nobody would believe it.” Inner city orphan Michael Oher was taken off the streets by a rich Memphis couple and introduced to academics and football, showing such talent at the latter that he was heavily recruited by the country’s top colleges. This year he was drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens and has started every game at tackle.

You’d think this is the sort of thing that simply requires a director to point the camera at the actors, let them tell the story and stay out of the way. But that underestimates what a nice job writer/director John Lee Hancock has done (he’s developed a knack for spinning fine films out of real life sports fairy tales, having previously directed Dennis Quaid in The Rookie).

For one thing, depicting Michael Oher’s story requires the navigation of some tricky terrain — namely the “magic negro” device so often worthy of derision. It’s easy to read this as a tale of large, quiet black man who redeems the life of the white protagonists through his preternatural gifts… The Green Hundred Yards rather than The Green Mile. That line of attack is supported by one line, featured prominently in the trailer, where Oher’s adopted mom suggests that she didn’t save his life, he saved hers.

That’s a good movie line, and it’s well delivered, but I don’t think it’s necessarily accurate. Leigh Ann and Michael Tuohy (at least as depicted in this film) weren’t in need of redemption. They are big-hearted people who saw a boy alone in the cold and offered him a place to stay. Compassionate and giving, they’re the rare people who give Christianity a good name.

The Michael Oher story isn’t a fable. It’s a marriage of incredible talent, incredible generosity and incredible luck. And Hancock, to his credit, tells the story straight, hitting all the important plot points with expert pacing, spending just enough time on Michael’s social evolution and his relationships with his new parents and siblings. The film has big laughs, big smiles, football action to make you cringe and cheer… everything you want from a Hollywood movie. And it’s easy to forget how difficult that is to accomplish.

The acting is excellent across the board. Somehow I’ve gotten this far in the review without mentioning Sandra Bullock, whose star vehicle this is. She is superb, and worthy of the Oscar nomination she might actually get. This is a different sort of role for her — Leigh Ann Tuohy is fierce and restrained and not “cute” — and Bullock resists the urge to overplay those characteristics. I’m thrilled that 15 years after her breakthrough role in Speed she is capping off the biggest box office year of her career with perhaps her finest performance.

Tim McGraw, as Michael Tuohy, is effortlessly endearing. I have loved McGraw every time I’ve seen him on screen. Quinton Aaron, as Michael Oher, has the difficult task of playing a protagonist who rarely speaks and does little to propel the action, and he handles the role with grace. Kathy Bates and Kim Dickens do nice work as the teachers in Michael’s life, though both feel a bit underused. Jae Head, as the Tuohy’s precocious son, started out a little too movie-cute for my tastes but by the end had won me over.

I have to dock the movie a couple of points for two stomach-churning moments: first, a replay of Joe Theismann’s career-ending injury, so indelible a football moment that the audience I was with started squirming the second the play started; and second, a prolonged cameo by the hated Nick Saban, portraying himself in the year before he came to Miami to help destroy the Dolphins. Bad form!

But those moments aside, this is a crowd-pleaser extraordinaire — a four-quadrant film that doesn’t feel manufactured. The boatloads of money this thing is raking in will come from all corners of the country and all demographics. It’s a reminder that quality populist film making is even more rare than worthy independent fare, and often more enjoyable.

In fact, The Blind Side feels like a movie that can help bridge the divide between Red State and Blue State America. Of course a year ago we thought Obama’s election would do that and we wound up with the Birther movement and accusations of socialism and fascism (often at the same time), so who knows… maybe a band of film snobs will start shouting the movie down in theaters like crazed town hall attendees.

Screw them. Pass the popcorn.