Director: Theodore Melfi
Release Date: 17th February 2017
Rating: PG (UK), PG (USA)
The inspiring tale of three extraordinary women who, despite all the odds stacked against them, made a dent in history by heavily contributing to NASA's space programme when it mattered most.
The never-before told stories of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson; three coloured women living and working in Virginia, USA during the 60's who stopped at nothing to show a world full of generalisations that they were highly underestimated.
The movie follows Katherine G. Johnson, an exceptional mathematician who is given the opportunity to work as 'computer' at NASA for the 1961-62 missions in the all-important 'space-race'. Alongside her were friends Dorothy Vaughn (computer-turned-supervisor with a knack for programming) and Mary Jackson (a wannabe aeronautics-engineer).
The standard of acting throughout was fantastic; not only did Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae provide us with wonderfully powerful, and terribly funny, depictions of the leads, but a surprise role from Mahershala Ali and an unrecognisable Kevin Costner made for a praise-worthy ensemble (all bar Jim Parsons and Kirsten Dunst, who I felt could have added more to their respective roles).
From cinematography to costume, the entire movie was fairly good - I wouldn't say flawless, but certainly to a decent standard. The plot itself was interesting, and the overtly 'Hollywood' glamorisation was combated with live-footage of the real-life events - which added a nice touch.
A Pharrell-Williams-saturated soundtrack (and, of course, a musical number for Janelle Monae), the music was fun and fit in well with Hidden Figures as a whole, though I can't help thinking more of a variation (instead of one all-too-often-repeated song) of songs could have been sampled. Either way, Pharrell was probably just happy to be involved.
Slightly (though slightly-understandably) agenda-pushing, I can't help but refer to similarities to Apollo 13 (the Friendship 7 landing scene reeked of Tom Hanks' blackout) and Octavia Spencer's earlier character in The Help - slightly unoriginal is the point here too.
Nostalgia-inducing - even for those not of the time - and portrayed almost expertly - but arguably too reminiscent of already-done pictures.
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