Mr. Movie review: ‘Hidden Figures’ a positve trip down memory lane

Hidden Figures tracks the lives of three black women in the early 1960s who worked for NASA. It is packed with hidden treasures ranging from warm, intelligent performances to a brilliant script and actor’s lines, to the unveiling of historical facts few of us know.

Co-written and directed by St. Vincent’s Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures — best of all — is awe-inspiring positive. The three women were critical to the success of the space race, and the movie follows their lives from the Soviet Union’s Yuri Garagin’s first trip into space to John Glenn’s capsule Friendship 7 orbiting of the Earth a few years later.

At the end, you learn how what happened to them led to even more interesting careers.

The raves about the movie and the performances are not overblown. TV’s Empire star Taraji P. Henson is Katherine Johnson, math whiz. She is the film’s focus, and it is Johnson’s work — says the movie — that got Glenn and his fellow astronauts safely into space and back.

Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer (The Help) plays leader extraordinaire and computer expert, Dorothy Vaughn. Moonlight Golden Globe nominee and singer Janelle Monae is Mary Jackson, an engineer assistant encouraged to get a degree by her white colleagues.

Kevin Costner and Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons are lots of fun as Johnson’s bosses. Also notable is Kirsten Dunst’s work as Vaughn’s supervisor.

It’s sad that only Spencer’s performance is noted by Golden Globe nominations. Hensen, Monae and Costner — especially — gave much better supporting performances than many of those nominated.

Last, you have to wonder if Glenn — who is a major focus of the film — got to see the movie before he died. He would have loved it.

And so will you. Don’t miss this one.

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Hidden Figures’ a positve trip down memory lane."