During the weekend of the recent Oscar awards Sandra Bullock entered the Hall of Eternal Likability. No, there isn't such an institution, but the idea exists in America and "Sandy" made it because in the same weekend she turned up to receive both her Oscar for The Blind Side and a Razzie for All About Steve. Moreover she handled the two occasions with the same easygoing attitude that guesses she didn't quite deserve either award but that knows her life has always been something of a gamble. Last year, when she had a modest hit in The Proposal – nowhere near a good film – she looked like a 44-year-old actress clinging on to lead roles. And now? Well, she looks like the same person wondering how you find more material as appealing (and as suited to her) as The Blind Side.
In truth, no matter that it's based on a real story, The Blind Side (a big hit) is a very old-fashioned film in which Bullock finds an impoverished black football player and builds his life and career for greatness and a great deal of sentimental good feeling. As such, it's a story that suggests a way ahead as Bullock hits middle age – as a tough, down-to-earth teacher with a heart of gold and no special need to admit it. And just because Bullock has a healthy cut of the profits on The Blind Side (after Julia Roberts turned it down) and helped steered it to the screen, we have every reason to think that kind of future lies ahead – including participation as a producer. After all, it's a part of being old-fashioned that Bullock possesses a kind of weary decency that could remind you of those amiable girls-next-door such as Hollywood used to possess – Doris Day, Sally Field, Diane Keaton, pretty girls but not so beautiful that they made people uneasy.
That's how Bullock built her career – she was pretty enough to hold our attention in the two Speed movies, she was gutsy and hard-working, and she wasn't so superior or glamorous that she made Keanu Reeves uneasy. More or less, being the girl in guy movies sustained her though a series of mild comedies – While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality, Hope Floats, Two Weeks Notice. Yes, they do all run together, but they all did well enough to keep the money interested. In fact, Bullock began looking farther afield some time ago and so, in recent years, she did well enough in Paul Haggis's Crash, playing an unpleasant character for the first time, and then in Douglas McGrath's Infamous, where she gave a fine, quiet performance as Harper Lee. This was the second of the two Truman Capote films, and it suffered in terms of public attention because it was second, but Bullock stood out in an excellent ensemble cast and showed that she has a range no one has tested before. (I exclude the wretched In Love and War where she played the nurse looking after Ernest Hemingway in hospital in Italy – but her Hemingway was Chris O'Donnell and the director was Lord Attenborough, who should have known better.)
In Love and War is still the only film she has done that demands depth – and the result was not promising. I suspect Sandra Bullock is shrewd and candid enough to feel the degree of generosity in her Oscar for The Blind Side. (In fact, the reason she had to be talked into the film was that she felt removed from the character's religious faith.) Meryl Streep gave a far better performance as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, but even Meryl seemed content this time not to win – and that left Sandy as the beneficiary. So this is her moment. Her reputation is not just high, but made over. She did two pictures in 2009 that made money – one of them a great deal. If ever she has been nursing difficult material, where she has to show us more of herself, this is the time. As ever in these situations, the test is of an actor's intelligence more than her vanity. With an Oscar, Bullock could let herself look a little older. She might recall the classics of Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn. Nothing wrong with that. For good or ill, she is an old-fashioned actor.