Hidden Figures

Directed By: Theodore MelfiWritten By: Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder (based on the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly)Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons

It’s hard to tell a story in a way that is totally free of cynicism, totally geared towards sunniness and triumph, whilst also remaining earnest and true. Hidden Figures is an unapologetically optimistic movie, one which wears its “message film” status like a badge on a scout’s uniform, and perhaps more damningly, it’s a film which never has the urge to push the envelope or stray from safeguarded formula. But it works, rather brilliantly so. The film’s abundant simplicities are not only masked, but are, eventually, completely transcended, as director Theodore Melfi puts into practise a cavalcade of electric yet downplayed performances, a surplus of vitality, and enough ovation worthy payoffs for ten crowd pleasers just like it.

Melfi and Allison Schroeder’s affectionate screenplay relays the story of three “coloured” women working as “computers” at NASA in the early 1960s. The trailblazing trio is composed of a no-nonsense, pragmatically skilled mother figure in Octavia Spencer’s Dorothy Vaughan (Dorothy serves as the supervisor of NASA’s segregated West Area Computers division, a title left unreflected in her pay and official title); a sassy, undeterrable Mary Jackson, played by Janelle Monae; and, most centrally, Taraji P. Henson’s mild-mannered mathematical prodigy Katherine Goble Johnson.

The three are dear friends, confined under the same roof with a small army of similarly segregated computers. But as the space race picks up speed the three find their talents pulling them each in a new direction, each course with its own glass ceiling to be shattered. Katherine’s unparalleled prowess with numbers lands her an unprecedented position in the Space Task Group, charged with manufacturing maths that will guide NASA’s rockets, one of which is to be manned by John Glenn (Glen Powell), into space and back to Earth without a hitch. She’s the sole Africa

n American in the group and as such is swiftly dismissed by her colleagues. She’s forced to run seemingly miles on end in order to find a “coloured” toilet, crunching numbers on the move, and when she first arrives she is assumed to be the janitor, handed a bin and put down for her failure to empty it overnight.

Katherine’s chief antagonist is head engineer Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons), who can hardly contain his dismay when he’s told Katherine must backcheck his numbers. But the racism seen in Hidden Figures is more tempered than one might expect of a Hollywood movie. The discrimination Katherine faces isn’t vicious or vitriolic, Melfi never rubs his viewer’s nose in the hardships that befall his central characters. Rather, the racism in Hidden Figures is contained largely to suspicious glares and small gestures, such as Kathrine being delegated her own “coloured” coffee pot (near tepid compared to the violence often seen in films dealing with race, but so sensitive and fastidious is Melfi that the sight of this coffee pot alone left the auditorium inconsolable). Late in the piece, Spencer’s Dorothy is told by supervisor Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst), that despite what she may think, he latter takes no issue with the former. “I’m sure you honestly believe that” Dorothy calmly retorts; it’s an insightful approach from Melfi, NASA’s white contingency are unconscious of their prejudices, racism is instead woven innocuously into the fabric of day to day Virgin

ian life.

It’s this sort of measured restraint which ensures Hidden Figures never seems slips into sanctimony or exploit the tensions at its heart, a notion which Kevin Costner as the progressive head of Space Task Group, Al Harrison, emblematises with his powerfully understated performance, assessing his staff on nothing but performance; Hidden Figures may be simple, but it never takes the cheap emotional route.

Dorothy has her own improbable ascension, taking it upon herself to master the IBM computers which threaten to render human mathematicians obsolete and gain her due supervisor title, whilst Mary aspires to obtain an unlikely engineering degree, fighting in court for a chance to even attend her required segregated university.

The central trio of performances are each luminous and distinct (Henson is subdued and polite, Spencer stern and feisty, Monae boisterous and self-assured), however the three find an even greater vibrancy in their triangular interplays and chemistry. It would be impossible to feel glum watching any of the three defy the expectations heaped on their respective characters. They, like the film itself, are defined by an indomitable spirit, an infectious good-will that spurs one of the most satisfying movie going experiences of the season, distilling hefty, confronting moments in human history into something is as eye opening as it is imminently watchable.

Rating:

3.75/4