Film Review - Hidden Figures (PG)

Al: So do you think we'll get to the moon?
Katherine: We're already there, sir.

Hidden Figures, based on remarkable real-life events, combines two very different struggles. Firstly it's a film in the tradition of The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, dealing with America's endeavours in the space race. On top of that it engages in a fresh and unexpected way with the efforts of African American women to achieve equal footing in a society that discriminates against them twice over. It's a determinedly old-fashioned piece of storytelling and avoids being corny by virtue of strong, restrained writing and a clutch of excellent central performances. 

The year is 1962 and astronaut Scott Glenn in months away from his historic space flight around the globe in the Friendship 7 capsule. But he can only get there courtesy of the numbers produced by NASA's mathematicians. A significant proportion of these, amazingly for the era, is a pool of highly educated black women, who nonetheless are cordoned off to work in a 'colored' section of the Space Agency. And in this struggle between progressive and reactionary thinking lies much of the film's tension.

The story centres on the travails of three friends in the 'pool', each of whom fights hard to make an impact in her field. Mary Jackson , the youngest of the three (played by recording artist Janelle Monae), is all glamour and sass, but with a steely determination when it comes to pursuing her goal of becoming an engineer. Dorothy Vaughn (The Help's Octavia Spencer) is the big sister of the group - her no-nonsense approach challenging all who enter her orbit. And Katherine Goble (bona fide TV star Taraji P. Henson) threatens to eclipse all the rest, when she is brought into the heart of NASA operations to calculating the mission's flight path. 

As individuals and as a trio, these three drive the narrative - fighting petty rules and ingrained prejudices on a daily working basis. Henson is particularly impressive - occasionally flustered by the indignities thrust upon her, but ploughing ahead nonetheless with geeky intensity. A romantic subplot does nothing to detract from the woman's achievements, her scientific and social breakthroughs providing several of the movie's dramatic high-points.

Support is refreshingly supplied by the men this time around. As mission controller Al Harrison, Kevin Costner exudes quiet authority. Moonlight's Mahershala Ali is a warm and dignified beau for the widowed Katherine. And Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame sheds all his Sheldon-isms to portray a scientist who's genuinely difficult to like. 

This is the women's show, however, and a tribute to pioneers in gender and racial politics, as well as in science. The film turns out to be grounded satisfyingly in real-life events too, some of the more Hollywood-seeming flourishes proving from a little research to be perfectly true. Take John Glenn's reaction to Katherine's brilliance - that's genuinely what he said of her.

All kinds of frontiers are being pushed back in a tale that's funny, infuriating and moving in turns, but which ultimately inspires. Hidden Figures may break no new ground in the style, but the genre-mashing subject-matter is original through and through - a story that demanded to be told.