The Space Race

Rating: 7/10 (16 March 2018)

Three female African-American Mathematicians join NASA in the early 60's at a time when segregation was still rife. Despite all of the prejudice that is levied upon them they defy the odds and each in their own way prove pivotal to NASA and their bid to get a man into space....
Racial segregation in the US was something that I was aware of and was something that I also had a basic understanding of, however the NASA space race was something I knew little about so on that basis I decided to give this film a shout and I pleased to report that I think I made the right call...
Every time I watch a film with racial segregation I feel as though I've been transported into some kind of alternate reality (in that I still find it hard to believe that those times ever existed). Director Theodore Melfi has no quarms in getting this point across and hammers it home at nearly every given opportunity (the heavy-handed approach employed here is my only major criticism that I have with this film).
Minor criticisms lie with the imbalanced story arcs with the 3 protagonists; we learn a lot about Katherine (whose brilliant mind and nervous energy make her an interesting and rather fun character to watch), but her friends don't get the same focus which was a bit frustrating to me as I would have liked to have learned more about them. Like a lot of biopics, Melfi plays a lot of the material on the safe side; it's a little fuzzy at times with rather predictable character shifts.
However, despite some of the above comments I did enjoy this film ( a special mention goes out to Taraji P Henson who I thought was terrific). The tenacity of these 3 women is beyond question and the breakthroughs in science that they achieved is simply phenomenal. Even with some of its shortcomings, this is an uplifting film about overcoming prejudice, fighting your corner and applying your talents to something that you believe in (regardless of how tough the road ahead may be). I take my hat off to these 3 women and would certainly recommend this film to one and all.