Hidden Figures

Did you know that three female African-American mathematicians, working at NASA in 1962, were involved in getting the Mercury program into orbit and winning the U.S. space race against the Russians? Neither did I. That’s why “Hidden Figures” is such an educational and crazily entertaining 2016 eye-opener. There’s nothing really new about the filmmaking – director Theodore Melfi mostly follows the writing in the script he wrote with Allison Schroeder from the nonfiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly. However, it’s the smart method. This is a story that doesn’t need extras. Peter Travers said in his review, “It simply needs telling, and the fact it gets three dynamite actresses to tell it does poetic justice to both these women and the Civil Rights movement at large.”

Taraji P. Henson excels as Katherine Johnson, a math genius whose extraordinary talent got her to the NASA facility in Langley, Virginia in 1961. Soon to be a centurion, Ms. Johnson has lived to see a research facility named after her. Things were not anywhere to being open-minded, sadly, when she and her friends, Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer, pitch perfect), hit segregated Virginia to work on the space program. Travers said, “Known as "colored computers" – the latter word being the organization's term for employees who did low-level calculations – these women soon made their mark against daunting odds.” In a beginning scene, the three are car-pooling to NASA and are pulled over by a white cop, played by Ron Clinton Smith, who finds it hard to believe that they work at NASA or even that Dorothy is able to fix a Chevy Impala herself.

Katherine is first to be promoted to a job with the Space Task Group, where manager Al Harrison (Kevin Costner, getting everything right) sees her skill – even if he evidently favors her colleague Paul Stafford (Sheldon Cooper from “The Big Bang Theory” himself, Jim Parsons, securing the careless racism of the time). Still, it’s Harrison who takes action when he realizes she has to walk half a mile to get to a “Colored Ladies Bathroom.” “Here at NASA, we all pee the same color,” he says, ripping off the restroom-segregation in a part that lets Costner say the words with forceful power.

Mary has to go to court for permission to take nigh classes required simply to apply for an open job in engineering. Travers credited, “Monáe is terrific in the role, showing here and in Moonlight that she has the right stuff to launch an acting career to match her success in music. Best of all is Spencer, an Oscar winner for The Help, who is funny, fierce and quietly devastating at showing the punishing increments it takes for Dorothy to inch up the NASA ladder.” Her Caucasian supervisor, Mrs. Mitchell, played by Kirsten Dunst, refuses to give her a supervisor role even though she’s already doing the job. Spencer gives a priceless jab that pays brave respect to these boundary-breaking pioneers.

The drama finds little time for the personal lives of its main characters, however the widowed Katherine is given a romance with a National Guard officer, played with humor and heart by Mahershala Ali. The importance here is watching these outstanding women at work. Dorothy sees the future in the new IBM machines being tested to speed up the space program, and takes the right action. Mary tells a judge, played by Frank Hoyt Taylor, that ordering desegregation of the all-white school she needs to take classes at would make him a pioneer. Katherine goes up against the hardest obstacles, working against the NASA rule of denying security clearances to female employees. However, even astronaut John Glenn, played by Glen Powell, calls Katherine “the smart one.” Travers noted, “The story may be corny at times, even simplistic, but that doesn't stop you from wanting to stand up and cheer.” Lots of movies are called “inspirational” – “Hidden Figures” truly earns that term for its movie.

This is an absolute must to watch, especially if you don’t know the story, like I didn’t. It’s really an inspirational film that takes place around a time that still has some of the problems that have not completely gone away. However, we have to thank these three NASA mathematicians for going up against the odds so that they could secure their jobs and open up the doors for everyone who wanted the jobs at NASA. Definitely see this one if you haven’t, I really recommend it.

Well, that ends this year’s “Black History Movie Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed the movies I reviewed this year and I hope I gave great recommendations to everyone. Check in next month for what I have in store for everyone.