A Gender Bender Period Drama

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2019)

6 January 2017. If initial statistics bear out, Hidden Figures will be quite a gender polarizing movie with females have a definitely greater appreciation of the movie than men. Whether or not there is any racial differences remain to be scene. This generally popular and some might say political correct black and white discriminatory period film reveals how black females in particular were minimized and isolated from the main society. The black man and white race, except the lead Kevin Costner relegated most of the other characters to minor or fumbling roles. However, unlike the more edgy and searing contemporary, anti-discrimination film Crash (2004) or intimate portrait of black labor of the 60s in The Help (2011), Hidden Figures is able to capture a connection with a wider public audience.
Hidden Figures for some reflects supposedly a different era of American history that a majority of Americans might not really relate to, something that might only be suggested today, though with the Black Lives movement and the increasing racial divide in our country today, Hidden Figures may be more relevant now than might have been otherwise. Hidden Figures may stand out from even The Paperboy (2014) for its ability to directly connect the common part in which race did not factor into the Patriotic, nationalistic pride and focus of this Country's unity with its important space program. Except perhaps a too brief and even unnecessary prelude of the childhood of one of the main characters, Hidden Figures has great editing, tender and insightful moments that reveal the darker places of America's relatively recent past.