Kevin Costner plays NASA official Al Harrison in “Hidden Figures.” (Hopper Stone/Twentieth Century Fox) She’s sent to work with Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), who’s annoyed when she disappears frequently throughout the day, but is impressed by her impeccable results. Although NASA is strictly segregated, with the African American mathematicians occupying their own office, Katherine is the most gifted computer on the site. Far from a dry scientific tutorial or historical treatise, “Hidden Figures” is a warm, lively, often funny depiction of women whose brains and work ethics were indefatigable, even in the face of racism and sexism at their most oppressive.Īdapted by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder from Margot Lee Shetterly’s book and directed by Melfi, “Hidden Figures” takes place at the height of the space race in the early 1960s, when the Soviets are winning the competition to get a manned mission into orbit, and when the pressure is on to get astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) and his colleagues in the Mercury program into their own supercharged tin cans.
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Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, respectively, says all you need to know about a movie propelled by their alternately salty and affecting performances.
The fact that these gifted women are played by the equally gifted Taraji P. This bracing movie, about a group of brilliant African American women whose scientific and mathematical skills helped NASA launch its space exploration program in the 1950s and 1960s, gets off to a spirited start and rarely lets up, sharing with viewers a little-known chapter of history as inspiring as it is intriguing.Īfter a brief prologue, when we meet Katherine Johnson as a teenage math prodigy, the film catches up with her in 1961, when she’s a young widow working at NASA’s Langley facility in Hampton, Va., as a “human computer,” sharing a ride to work with her colleagues Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. So one of the most gratifying qualities of “Hidden Figures” is how it bursts onto the screen like a shot of distilled, exhilarating joy. No sooner had viewers dried and fluffed their hankies after seeing “ Moonlight” and “ Manchester by the Sea” than they were awash again during “ Loving” and “Lion.” Even “ La La Land,” Damien Chazelle’s affectionate ode to song-and-dance musicals, tempers the celebration with a generous helping of heartache. It’s a fact of movie life that, during the holiday season, tears will be shed. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) are three brilliant women working at NASA in “Hidden Figures.” (Hopper Stone/20th Century Fox)
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