The words ‘based on a true story’ usually evoke one of three things. Death and tears. Men and sports. Or men and war. 20th Century Fox’ s recent release Hidden Figures offers a breath of fresh air for skeptics. This time women are leading the charge.
Given that most of the events depicted in the film actually happened, we still don’t think it counts as spoilers if we unveil the plot a little bit. Set in 1961, the film shines a spotlight on the story of three women who are trying find their feet amongst the male dominated office space that was NASA at the time.
Beating some of the plot holes of the genre, Hidden Figures is not the story of a lone wolf rising from the ashes to save the world. It is a trio at the helm, and teamwork is the theme. Each leading lady gets her own arc through the story. The story centers around child mathematical prodigy Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson who went on to become NASA’s first black female engineer and Dorothy Vaughan who become NASA’s first African-American manager.
There isn’t any real unloading of mathematical jargon to make you snore. Instead the film sails by on lively performances and sassy dialogues. The film breaks quite a few glass ceilings and it transcends the fanfare of a fabulous star cast to shine a spotlight on racism, sexism more.
The cast supporting and opposing the three women play equally important roles in driving the film forward. Kevin Costner wears the suit of Katherine’s boss, Harrison who drives his team like dogs, trying to catch up to the Russians in the space race. While on the other end of the spectrum you have Jim Parsons and Kirsten Dunst whose taunts and tricks, mange to get under everyone’s skin. While you can’t help but adore Glen Powell as John Glenn, especially when he trusts the women’s calculations over the results of the computer.
We really enjoy a good race again the clock build up, and this one was out of the world, again, quite literally. With an upbeat encouraging soundtrack by Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer, and Benjamin Wallfisch, the film manages to build anticipation and a fever that you can almost taste in the cinema hall. Trust us when we say there will be plenty of moments that shock, awe and leave you in outrage. We can even promise that you’ll be cheering the girls on at more than one point through the film.
The best news yet is that there’s mention of the film joining the ranks of Sunset Boulevard, Hairspray and Kinky Boots being adapted for a stage production. We’re pretty sure everyone’s heard about it by now, just in case you haven’t seen the movie yet, we think you should. Catch a peek at the trailer here.
