Hidden Figures Review

 

History has a riches of true powerful stories and director Theodore Melfi directs a very poignant and powerful true story that took place in the 1960s. His 2017 film Hidden Figures recounts the true story behind three African-American women who worked at NASA who helped to correctly calculate the launching of a space shuttle with astronaut John Glenn at the helm  to get a man into space in the race against the Russians. The most major character in the story Katherine Johnson played excellently by Taraji P. Henson is a “human-computer” at NASA who is instrumental in the calculations for the space shuttle launching in the Space Task Force. Octavia Spencer plays Dorothy Vaughan another human-computer who goes on to operate a machine that performs calculations at razor speed, and Janelle Monae plays Mary Jackson a human-computer assigned to work as an assistant to the male engineers. The true story drives forward with plenty of feel good moments with a superb cast including Kevin Costner as Al Harrison, the department head of the Space Task Force, and Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford the head engineer. The events are depicted through the lens of true historical emotional substance as segregation is emphasized as a major issue highlighting the horrors of the past in this otherwise inspirational story. This film is fantastically executed and delves deep into its characters. 

    The characters are so rich in this picture as they should be because they are real people who actually lived through these events and it's only right that Melfi does justice to the memories of their careers and lives. Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson is something really special because her character is interestingly very unique. A typical cliche bold strong woman might have been interpreted in this picture out of the Johnson character but instead, Henson portrays a woman who is shy, yet strong, and unsure of herself amidst a world of segregation. Henson has no problem in making her performance believable and bringing comedic relief to the fold without even trying to be funny. The Johnson character is allowed to develop wonderfully throughout the picture as she grows from being shy and timid to bold and confident in herself. The transformation isn’t a total 360-degree turn and that's good because that may have felt cheap or unreal in a sense. Instead, the transformation is a transformation to a certain degree where Johnson is still shy and uncomfortable around people but she stands taller and interjects her opinions louder and isn’t afraid of what's to come so much anymore. The power of the characters though is wedged in the distinct differences between the three African-American women characters. Spencer’s character Vaughan is very bold, and headstrong and she is stronger and has no hesitation about speaking her mind. The stark contrast between her and Johnson makes for a great parallel between the two and forms a unique relationship. Monae's character Mary is a bit of a flirty caring very girly girl type who helps to make the distinction amongst three African-American women characters all the more clear and impactful. The talents of Costner and Parsons do a great job bringing depth and nuanced performances to their roles without doing a wild dramatic change in their characters throughout the picture which wouldn’t be appropriate as the focus is on the primary event of getting the space shuttle into space in this story. Still yet the characters evolved throughout the picture with Mary finding the courage to pursue a life as an engineer, Costner’s character becoming more cognizant of his surrounding circumstances, and Parson’s character becoming a tad more humble. The characters are the momentum behind this project as Melfi makes you care about these characters with excellent writing alongside Allison Schroeder and a great ensemble of a cast and furthermore the message this picture is promoting is all the more impactful. 

Segregation was awful and Hidden Figures certainly gets that point across with its characters. The segregation element isn’t given priority over the story which is a great help immensely to the overall experience as the plot would have likely suffered had Melfi chosen to go that route. Instead, the segregation element is interwoven into the plot and is experienced as we follow the characters in the story. The main white star's characters in this film take different approaches to how they view or treat segregation as they consult their everyday lives at NASA or rather their rather important period of time as they fought against the Russians to beat them to space. If all the white characters were made out to have the same level of disdain or respect for the African-American characters the story would have surely fallen flat and lost any gravity it had. Instead by allowing for a diverse number of attitudes to be displayed dimensionality is added and enhances the viewing experience. The message of how segregation plagued past generations is communicated effectively and perhaps it even is effectively used to be a warning to future generations and to further social issues in pushing for equality over undermining others. 

This picture in what could have been a relentlessly grim depressing affair turns out to be a wonderful sensational picture that at the same time entertains and provides commentary on the past and a message of hope for the future. Sub-plots are used effectively and enhance the characters that are involved in this true story. Melfi directed this film beautifully and was able to find actors to fill into the roles of these real characters believably. Overall I would say Hidden Figures is a fun solid film and I am assigning it a score of 8.5/10.