Welcome back, Sandra Bullock!

After having given us the cute but unremarkable “The Proposal” and the abysmally stupid “All About Steve” earlier this year, Bullock has climbed back on her cinematic horse to deliver one of the best dramas of the year.

“The Blind Side” doesn’t break new ground in terms of plot or structure, nor is it an edge-ofyour-seat drama—it’s more an old comfortable shoe of a story that simply feels good. It’s a quasiconventional coming of age story, a compassionate family saga played against the backdrop of high school football. It’s not “Friday Night Lights” and it’s not “Remember the Titans,” and if it weren’t a true story, football probably wouldn’t be an integral part of the tale at all.

But “The Blind Side” is a true story, and all the more riveting in that a homeless black teenager taken in by a well-to-do, white Southern family is now an AllAmerican offensive left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.

Quinton Aaron nicely plays Michael Oher, the sullen Memphis teenager whose drug-addled mother barely knows him.

Oher finds himself adrift in a new high school. He’s an underachiever, without friends or direction or much aptitude.

By happenstance one evening, he comes to the attention of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (Bullock, Tim McGraw), who take him in “for a night.”

The night becomes a week becomes—well, a good while longer. Sound a little too coy? A little too Hollywood? Well, surprisingly not.

When one of Leigh Anne’s friends tells her, “You’re changing that boy’s life,” Leigh Anne replies, “No, he’s changing mine.” She means it, and that’s the gist, the simple beauty of “The Blind Side.” It’s a family tale that fortunately doesn’t try to become much else.

Bullock plays the stubborn, opinionated Leigh Anne on the edge of almost unlikable, and McGraw is the quiet yin to Leigh Anne’s overbearing yang. Together, they pull off a realistic family dynamic.

I’m not a fan of the “white family-black misfit” backhanded morality tale. (And 2003’s “Radio” comes quickly to mind.) Frankly, I find these stories overstuffed with superficial nobility, condescending and self-serving. Short of “Six Degrees of Separation” with Will Smith, such films leave me somewhat queasy. “The Blind Side” however shows little sign of such self-indulgence.

At one point the NCAA steps in, accusing the Tuohys of perhaps “cultivating” Oher for the benefit of their alma mater. I’m not sure how necessary the scene is to the film, but it does fairly raise the question. On the flip side, it also illustrates how every good intention has its ramifications in a society that still sees black and white as, well, black and white.

Otherwise, “The Blind Side” is refreshingly shy of stereotype. This isn’t a film so much about differences as it is about similarities, about second chances— actually first chances, in Oher’s case. And for those of us who believe everyone—no exceptions—deserves an equal chance to be anything they can in this country, “The Blind Side” chimes like a bell.

Another plus? It’s not a hanky sniffer either. Director John Lee Hancock lets the story play out with a gentle sincerity, without wailing violins or dramatic pauses. There are, in my opinion, some unnecessary flashbacks that trip up the tale momentarily here and there, but otherwise this one’s regal and gentle, perhaps even worthy of an Oscar nod in this year’s confoundingly expanded horserace.

During the closing credits, snapshots of the real Tuohys, of the real Michael Oher bring its reality home. For my money, the best sports movies have always been about the people, not the sport (“Rudy,” “Remember the Titans”), and the best family dramas are likewise about the family, not the drama. “The Blind Side” comes through nicely in both regards.