three smart women of color help send a white guy safely into orbit

Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2017)

Reviews of Oscar contenders by Alex Deleon.
HIDDEN FIGURES (A Számolás Joga) Hidden Figures is a very hard film to write an objective review about. You can't say anything bad about a film about good colored people (Afro-Americans) struggling against rabid racial prejudice and you can't say that this isn't really a Kevin Costner film with a few Afro-Americans supplying support in a thriller about getting a white guy (John Glenn) into space. Nor can you say that Kirsten Dunst isn't a lot easier on the eye than the pudgy bungling Afro-American lady who is theoretically the central figure (Tariji P. Henson) -- an extra smart mathematician who saves the day at NASA but keeps dropping things all over the place on her way to the segregated Colored Only toilet in a different building where she does most of her calculations in a John cubicle -- but basically, that's what it is. A Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst movie with a lot of colored people running around and some nice Cape Canaveral blast off and space orbiting footage.
Very preachy with nearly every inspirational cliché in the book but a definite winner given the pressure these days in Hollywood to promote demographic equality and not worry too much about intrinsic film quality. Costner's best work since The Untouchables. He should have been nominated for Best Actor. Kirsten Dunst was also very good in her relatively limited role. She's getting to be the go to good looking early middle age gal in Hollywood flixx. Improving with age like good wine. The best scene in the movie was Costner chopping down the Colored Only segregated bathroom sign with an axe and then muttering "we only have one color at NASA" over his shoulder as he strides away -- Good show Kevin!
A non question not addressed in this "Let's hear it for female Afro-American brain power" inspirational polemic is; How come there were no white people around who could do Analytic Geometry at the time? -- And why didn't they apply for the job? Of course, this is a hair splitter of a moot question because if they did there wouldn't be any movie to talk about -- and since this is actual history (or something like that) you can't really knock it. Not that I would want to knock it ~ Some of my best friends used to be colored people. In high school.
PS: The Hungarian title which translates as "The right to calculate" is quite apt since the main thrust of the story is about three black women fighting against rampant racial prejudice for the right to save the basically caucasoid Space program with their inborn calculational abilities. Amazing that this story has waited until now to be discovered and brought to light. If nothing else it will hold your interest for the meticulous reconstruction of the events of the early days of the Space Race when the Red Russians made American faces ruby red by getting a man into orbit -- Yuri Gagarin -- first.
Incidentally, the guy who plays our first successful astronaut, John Glenn (who passed away December 8, 2016, at age 95) like a wannabe movie star deserves some kind of distinction for his upbeat portrayal of a genuine American hero. Hidden Figures is up for three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting actress, (Octavia Spencer), Writing, Best Adapted screenplay (from a book). Bottom Line: Affimative Action in action in Hollywood..