Hidden Figures (2016), PG, ★★★

The three women with their children at church. 

There have been many "inspirational true stories" where the studio leans more towards the inspiration than the true story because sometimes, the movies get carried away with their material that it becomes overreaching and manipulative than factual and interesting. So, going into this movie, I am a fan of both Taraji P. Henson's and Octavia Spencer's work but I have never heard of Janelle Monae much until this year with this and Moonlight, but I had some apprehension going into it because I thought it will overreach with their topics and themes. Yes, the result is a bit corny, but somehow, the story about three African-American women to achieve their goals with their knowledge and skills by helping NASA with the Mercury program weaves into a well-told and well-acted movie that is uplifting and important for people and also middle-schoolers and high-schoolers should see. 

In 1961 in Virginia, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) are stuck on the side of the road with their car not working. A police officer stops and ask for identification and he begins to question them because of their race but when they reply that that they work in NASA, the police officer asks if they are friends with the astronauts and Mary responds that they are but it's clear that, from their expressions, they are not. The police escort them to NASA after their car is fixed. The three women work at the West Coast Computers division, segregated from the Langley Research Center, who work as "computers", doing math by hand. Mary wants to aspire to become an engineer and Katherine wants to help more as Vivian Jackson (Kirsten Dunst) tells to Dorothy that the Space Test Group needs a new computer and Dorothy suggests Katherine is the best.

The Space Task Group has a meeting as to how they are going to beat Russia, which they had success with Sputnik 1. The man in the meeting demands that Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), the head engineer, can get people up there without interfering with the cost. Katherine goes through all the trouble with working with her white male colleagues because there are barriers, for example, where she has to walk half a mile or outside to go to the bathroom because she is not allowed in the bathroom inside. Dorothy is not respected enough because of her lack of wisdom and knowledge in certain areas even though she is committed and persistent in her leadership. And, Mary, again, tries hard to become an engineer. So, there are setbacks in each of their stories amidst a milestone in American history.

At its core, the movie is uplifting and its message is in the right place: because no matter the color of your skin or your gender, it's what your talent, skill and persistence that will strive you to earn people's respect and also earn your highest position. And, that, in my mind is what I think it is about that within the confines of the world in the engineering and scientific world in NASA, you can see some familiar tropes or caricatures such as the character played by Jim Parsons that downplays the female African-American people with a snotty personality. It does hurt the movie a little bit as it goes into familiar territory in a more "friendly" way but it is understandable because the studio wants to reach to children too and it is targeted to children too as a more important and entertaining history lesson but it has some suspense even towards the end with John Glenn orbiting the Earth.

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe all give solid performances as they have at least one stand-out moment. Their chemistry is great and also has some subtle hints of humor. I did have some problems juggling all three characters because it is dominant on Henson's character as Katherine Johnson and it was the most interesting. The story involving Dorothy and her staff was well-told but it reaches a bit of unnecessary humor and not much backstory but sort of reaches an inspiring resolution but with not much sub-context. I wished they had more character development and backstory on Monáe's character because her story was quite interesting. Kevin Costner gives one of his best supporting character performances and Kirsten Dunst is quite good. Jim Parsons, again, plays a caricature that was a bit frustrating to watch.

Director Theodore Melfi does a good job capturing both the racial barriers and also how people so good at their jobs communicating and collaborating how they want to put Americans in space. It does suffer in comparison with other better and greater true sci-fi stories such as The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 because the movie focused more on the inspiring elements like speeches or monologues or themes than the story at times but still, I was into each of the three stories because of the cast and their big chemistry. The movie is a celebration of importance of both racial and skillful contributions to an important American event and it is fascinating and rewarding to witness that overlooked event because not many people recognize or have told about African-American women contributing to the Mercury program. It is a corny movie stressing on its feel-good messages, however, this is crowd-pleasing and solid entertainment.

***