To say I was moved by On the Blind Side would be an understatement. The Brigadier felt the same. We could hardly move from our seats at the end of the film.

On the Blind Side stars Sandra Bullock in her 2010 Emmy award-winning role as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a headstrong white wife and mother who turns around the life of a homeless black boy by taking him out of the cold; figuratively and literally.

Gentle giant, Quinton Aaron plays Michael Ohey with considerable subtlety. He slowly flowers; a remarkable transformation sparked by 10-year-old Sean Junior (Jae Head), who takes charge of Michael’s development.

It is SJ who befriends Michael at the white Christian school where he arrives like a beached whale, completely out of his territory. And it is SJ who initiates the tough practice sessions that turn Michael into the football player that every university in the country wants.

Even Michael’s apparent lack of academic prowess can be worked on. Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) is brought in. She encourages, coerces and bolsters Michael’s confidence until he can tackle different subjects in the classroom in the same way that he approaches problems on the football field.

His academic piece de resistance is to write an essay about Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, where 600 men march into a hopeless situation for the sake of honour. Michael’s comprehension moves a previously implacable teacher to tears. Those of us in the back seats, too.

Written for the screen and directed by John Lee Hancock, On the Blind Side pairs up several completely incongruous types.

Bullock’s performance mirrors that of a feisty little tug coaxing a vast passenger liner into a different shipping lane; in this particular harbour, her son is akin to a Customs speed boat nipping around the ship’s flank. And what is astonishing is that such an unlikely alliance could be based on a true life story.

As Sean Tuohy, Tim McGraw provides the emotional architecture for a very fine balancing act with Sandra Bullock. Passivity is one thing, active quietude is quite another. He gives depth to Bullock’s passion, in the way that velvet sets off a diamond’s lustre.

One sizzling moment in the film between Leigh Anne and husband Sean comes when she broaches the subject of them adopting Michael. “Do I get a choice?” he asks. Fade to Leigh smiling mischievously up at him from the pillows: “You knew I was a multi-tasker when you married me.”

Additionally, when you take away their difference in appearance, Sean and Michael have a natural empathy. Both are acute observers; and both have an unusual capacity to adapt.

Flexibility is something foreign to most of those in the aptly ‘Hurt Village’ of Michael’s birth; an ugly section of poverty-stricken Memphis. Nor does it come easily to those sitting just a little too smugly in the green parklands of conservative, white America.

McGraw asserts that you don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate The Blind Side. “Whether or not you are interested in football, or sports at all, the story behind this movie is so heart-warming, I think it will appeal to everyone.”

The combination of passion and hope in the film is delicately balanced; it could easily have toppled into a mire of sentimentality.

It has been adapted from the Michael Lewis story The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. This explores the unconventional background of Baltimore Ravens’ left tackle, Michael Oher, who becomes an unlikely but vital part of the Tuohy family.

On the Blind Side will be released through Odeon Cinemas on March 26.