‘Hidden Figures’
Rating: PG for “thematic elements and some language.” Running time: 126 minutes.
Theodore Melfi’s buoyant “Hidden Figures” is an old-fashioned feel-good movie with powerful contemporary relevance, spearheaded by a trio of unstoppable actresses playing black women who wouldn’t be stopped.
Set in 1961 Virginia, the fact-based “Hidden Figures,” adapted from Margot Lee Shetterly’s non-fiction book, is about three peripheral characters at NASA who made important contributions to the space race. Their workplace, at Langley, is segregated (with separate bathrooms and drinking fountains) and the offices are uniformly run by white males in suits.
But the talent and smarts of mathematician Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), budding engineer Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) and computer supervisor Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) are becoming impossible to ignore.
Metaphors are all around. While rockets lift off, the women of “Hidden Figures” strive for their own upward movement. Arithmetic surrounds them, but they’re continuously underestimated.