Hidden Figures-2016
Director Theodore Melfi
Starring Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, Octavia Spencer
Scott’s Review #619
Reviewed February 26, 2017
Grade: A-
Hidden Figures (2016) is a mainstream, “Hollywood” style film produced, written, and acted very well.
The film tells the story of three female African American mathematicians who faced many struggles and were somewhat overlooked in the early 1960s.
The women achieved historical success and allowed John Glenn to orbit planet Earth.
From a film perspective, the story is feel-good but not contrived. It feels quite fresh and features an excellent ensemble cast with good chemistry.
I enjoyed this film immensely.
Blessed with good smarts, Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer), Mary Jackson (Monae), and Katherine Johnson (Henson) were fortunate enough to work for the Langley Research Center – in 1961.
In those days, segregation still existed, and the women worked as temporary workers and used separate “colored” bathrooms and were largely excluded from the white workers.
The three women are best friends and drive to work together- each has an individual specialty, and the film focuses on each woman’s story.
The more prominent role and main story are about Katherine. Since the Russians had already achieved success in outer space, the race was on for the United States to follow suit. Katherine is assigned as a “computer” in the Space Task Group, led by Al Harrison (Kevin Costner).
Initially, Katherine is dismissed by her colleagues but eventually is accepted due to her smarts.
In subplots, Dorothy struggles to be given a Supervisory position. Mary aspires to be the first female engineer despite needing to enter an all-white school to take the necessary classes.
My favorite of the three performances is Taraji P. Henson.
The actress impresses with her spunky, well-mannered portrayal, specifically her fantastic scene when she has had enough of the segregation and difficulty performing her job.
She loses it in front of the entire team and rails against them- expecting to lose her job, instead, her boss Al, (a fantastic nice-guy role for Costner), sees her point and declares NASA will see no distinction of color.
Henson is the lead actress in the film and carries it well.
The chemistry between the three actresses makes Hidden Figures work so well and appear believable. The women always have each other’s backs and are friends outside of work, attending church and picnics together.
The film is wise to feature women’s lives outside of their professions.
A nice side story of single mother Katherine (her husband, who has died) meeting and being courted in lovely fashion by handsome National Guard member Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali) is a sweet story, genuinely told.
The two also have nice chemistry together.
The film’s finale, as the attempted launch of John Glenn is met with problems, is compelling. Due to their genius of Katherine, she must save the day as Glenn trusts only her judgment and calculations of the ever-so-important numbers.
The scene is a “just desserts” moment for Katherine as the country rallies patriotically behind the events.
Hidden Figures plays it safe, and the actual struggles of the real women undoubtedly had darker and meaner situations, as the discrimination they faced had to have been more intense.
Still, the film strives to downplay some of the grit in favor of light-hearted, crowd-pleasing fare, but I fell for it hook, line, and sinker and enjoyed the film ride that I was given.
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress-Octavia Spencer, Best Adapted Screenplay
