Hidden Figures review – a brilliantly made and crowd pleasing film

‘The untold story of how three brilliant female African-American mathematicians working at NASA helped launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit.’

Directed and co-written by Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures tells the incredibly true, and hardly known story of three intelligent women who helped put the first American into space in the early sixties. Sadly, they were also African American and lived in a time of prejudice and segregation, where they were viewed as second-class citizens, based purely on the colour of their skin.

Taraji P. Henson plays Katherine Goble Johnson, the mathematician who would ultimately calculate the trajectories and flight plans for astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell), and with the help from colleagues Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), these remarkable women would overcome the cultural boundaries of their time, and play a major part in American history.

Even though the story’s only fifty odd years removed from our present, it was a completely foreign world to us, and Melfi captures it accurately, albeit softly. It’s a shameful part of our history in which African Americans were segregated in many parts of the country; from work areas, to even toilets. Where they were looked upon as inferior, and underestimated in every area of life. This is the world our three protagonist’s find themselves in, where they had to fight to be heard, and quietly endure indignities every day.

The tone’s kept light and family friendly, and although maybe glossed over to a certain degree, Melfi is able to give us a real feel of the hardship African American’s dealt with on a day-to-day basis. The film’s ultimately from a female perspective though and focuses on their quiet rebellion instead of the men’s more defiant protests. Where they fought the system by putting the work in and proving themselves just as capable as any white man and earning their right to sit at the table with the big boys.

Despite these weightier issues, for the most part, Hidden Figures is presented as an upbeat, feel-good film that will have you fist pumping at the end, and caught up in US’s attempt of getting the first American in orbit.

Thankfully, the NASA plot isn’t Melfi’s only concern, and a good chunk of time is given over to these three extraordinary women and the lives they lived outside of work. Henson, Octavia, and Monáe give great performances then, as these highly capable individuals who just had the bad luck of being born in the wrong era. 

The focus is mostly on Katherine, and Henson does an excellent job of quietly showing her inner strength, determination, and frustration of being looked down upon, even though she’s probably the smartest one in the room. Her main opponent is Jim Parson’s head engineer, mostly known for his sweet but socially inept character from The Big Bang Theory (2007). Here, he really departs from that and plays this mean-spirited, ignorant, and jealous man, who’s pretty much there to embody the general attitudes of most Caucasians during that time.

Octavia and Monáe are also brilliant, and together with Henson, all three present an organic and authentic friendship, which you can see has really been tested by fire, and strengthened by their shared experiences of having to struggle against the system, which is the true antagonist of the film.

Outside of the main three, there’s a big cast and not everyone gets enough time to shine, particularly Kirsten Dunst’s supervisor and Mahershala Ali, who’s relegated to a thinly sketched love interest for Katherine. On the other hand, Kevin Costner is good as that gruff authority figure who deep down has a soft spot. It’s a character type we’ve seen him play numerous times before and he puts it to good use as the Director of the Space Task Group.

The period setting is also well realised with authentic looking sets and costumes. It’s also aided by a cool mixture of Sixties and contemporary music, which really helps immerse you into this world. Apart from the casual racism, it’s presented as an idealised version of that time, where everything is bright and white, as if to push the idea that this was a golden age of American history, if you happened to be white that is. In contrast, the African American communities and work spaces are given far more colour and vibrancy, but are symbolically drowned out by the over use of that white and clinical colour palette.

‘Hidden Figures is a great film that gives the real life account of the unsung heroes who helped achieve one of the most important events of the last sixty years.’

It’s also family friendly so everyone can learn about this vital time in history and see how the civil liberties we take for granted now, had to be fought for in our not so distant past. Despite those heavy issues, it’s also an entertaining film with fantastic leading performances and a crowd pleasing story.