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It is this that is being appreciated by film watchers. The story develops like this: No-nonsense Leigh Anne sees Oher (Quinton Aaron) walking alone on a cold, rainy Memphis night.

She is moved by this and spontaneously invites him to stay with her family, starting of an interesting twist and turn.

And if all goes according to plan, it will also pack movie theaters on Nov. 20, when writer-director John Lee Hancock’s movie version hits theaters, starring newcomer Quinton Aron as Oher and Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw as Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy – the wealthy, white, conservative, evangelical couple who devoted themselves to the happiness and success of “Big Mike,” a black kid from the meanest streets of Memphis, Tenn.

Anyone writing about Lewis’ extraordinary “The Blind Side” feels torn between trying to convey its magical counterpoint of robust, supple emotion and brilliant analysis – and trying not to give away its constant stream of surprises.

According to standardized tests or conventional observers, Michael Oher (pronounced “oar”) was a lost cause when he entered Briarcrest Christian School, a private Memphis high school, as a 6-foot-5-inch, 340-pound giant with zero learning or communication skills and a profound inability to indicate his own desires. He abhorred human touch and appeared to be as determined to remain as inconspicuous as a natural pillar of strength could be.

No one (including Michael) knew where he’d sleep, what he’d wear or how he’d eat. Ralph Ellison wrote about the Invisible Man. Oher was the Invisible Boy-Man until his biology and “special needs” teachers realized that he was absorbing class lessons with his remarkable hidden intelligence – and until the Tuohys recognized that he was a physical genius able to master an esoteric skill like a discus throw simply by seeing someone else do it.