Looking for an entertaining film starring women of colour dominating an intellectual field? Then skip this review and watch Hidden Figures right bloody now. This is the real-life tale of three African-American women who didn’t get enough credit for their contributions to NASA and the space race, making it an immensely valuable story to tell.
The cortex of the film sits with Katherine (Taraji P Henson), a mathematical prodigy who works her way into NASA’s largest calculating mind hive made up of a largely male, completely white staff. Jim Parsons plays a co-worker who is more than miffed that she could possibly be at his level (she’s actually way better), constantly stonewalling her progress and hiding behind the common excuse that it’s “just the way things are.”
Her boss, played by Kevin Costner, is more tolerant on the surface, but his inability to recognise her struggle doesn’t make him a holy white saviour. When he gets the wake-up call, he takes appropriate action, but only after Katherine calls bullshit on everyone in a hugely satisfying scene that uses Henson’s emotive skills to full capacity.
It gets deeper with Dorothy’s (Octavia Spencer) storyline, a should-be-supervisor forced to butt heads with her boss Vivian (Kirsten Dunst). Vivian is vicious, and racist, but not necessarily a vicious racist, allowing the film to expose degrees of racial intolerance that reside in everyday people.
It’s a shame the commanding Janelle Monáe as Mary feels heavily side-lined in comparison, resurfacing for a decent but laboured court case. Director Theodore Melfi doesn’t do anything to make the math mumbo jumbo seem interesting either – visually or otherwise – which has always been a problem for movies about amazing science nerds. His workmanlike approach – ironically – holds back this otherwise incredible workwomen tale.
