Making It All Count

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2017)

(RATING: ☆☆☆☆½ out of 5)
THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.
IN BRIEF: A trio of fine performances empower an uplifting tale of tolerance and strength.
GRADE: B+
SYNOPSIS: Three African-American women overcome prejudice and use their talents working at NASA during the early 60's.
JIM'S REVIEW: Hidden Figures, a docudrama solidly directed by Theodore Melfi, tells the true story of three African-American women whose talents with numbers brought them together to work on the space program at NASA. Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) became the brains behind one of America's greatest achievements in history: the successful orbit of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell). Dealing with Jim Crow laws and discrimination due to their race and gender, these pioneers contributed to the Civil Rights movement. The film tells their untold story with much understated power.
There are some intriguing unknown facts at play in the literate screenplay by the director and Allison Schroeder (humans called computers / outdated technology like the massive IBM machines / segregated book sections in public libraries, many African-American secretaries working at NASA, etc.) The script shows the racial inequities in the subtlest of ways.
￼Still, there is a bit of whitewashing over the more brutal aspects that occurred during the early 1960's era against the "colored" race. None of the violence is shown in gut-wrenching honesty. It's all a little too sanitized. and the lead characters come off a tad saintly. There also seems to be a large degree of fictitious composites with some of the supporting characters in order to create dramatic conflict for our trio of crusaders. These bigoted "white folk" come off more plot devices than as actual people. However, the story itself is always involving and handled extremely well. The end result may be more crowd-pleasing than realistic, but as entertainment goes, historical accuracy is second place to real enjoyment.
The lead actresses are superb. Ms. Henson, Ms. Spencer, and a beguiling Ms. Monáe create vivid characters and their chemistry is electric. One immediately roots for their inevitable success throughout the film. Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, and Mahershala Ali co- star, and they all bring great nuance to their stock characters.
Mr. Melfi re-creates the turbulent times with a restrained vision. He never overdoes the injustice angle, although a little more anger may have more impact for this reviewer. That said, Hidden Figures is a film that finally recognizes the talents and determination of these African-American women who overcame obstacles in their everyday lives. The film deserves your attention. This is one of the most important feel-good movies of the year, with more uplift in their stories than the customary lift-off of a NASA launch itself. Go see it.
NOTE: The film score by Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, and Benjamin Wallfisch added a nice R & B flavored vibe to the film. Especially strong was the theme use of the song Runnin' and closing credit song, Mirage, with Mary J. Bilge's powerful vocals. Very impressive.