Entertaining portrayal of an interesting time

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2018)

Three brilliant people aim to have great careers at NASA. But this is 1961. And they are women. And black.
Our three women - and I use the word "our" because this film is so effective at helping you to identify with them - are maths whiz Katherine (Taraji P Henson), trailblazing computer programmer Dorothy (Viola Davis), and engineer Mary (Janelle Monae). All three are gifted beyond even their contemporaries at NASA, but all three are held back by the double "handicaps" of sex and colour. This film tells their stories.
There are several stories here - as well as the individual stories of the three women, there is also the story of fighting to get John Glenn into orbit and safely returned to Earth, and a variety of what would be called sub-plots if this were fiction.
But it isn't fiction. Dramatised for the screen, yes, but the substance here is true, and it is sobering to realise that the colour bar in the USA was fully operational so recently.
For all that we are presented with a dispiriting picture of how things were, we are never lectured to. This film is rich and heartwarming, helped by the portrayal of these three great women whose achievements and real-life pictures are shown with the end credits. These are strong characters, nicely drawn. We like them, and are pleased to see that their abilities and achievements are finally recognised.
The performances here are all good - the principals hold the film, of course. but Kevin Costner as the Head of the Mission Control maths department is another sympathetic character, while Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons are effectively less so.
The period detail is good. The film is paced well, subject only to a bit too much time given to Katherine's half-mile runs to the toilet. And there is quite a lot of humour. For a two-hour film, the time never drags. And, for a film which addresses a worthy, socially important subject, it never forgets to be entertaining.
I enjoyed this rather more than some of the other Best Film contenders for this year's Oscars.