i watched
Hidden Figures -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/reference
Let's get out of the way the main bugbear: Hidden Figures does try to
make the "struggle" more real than it was. I don't blame them, it makes
for a good story and while in theory, this film doesn't need to add
inaccuracies, it would otherwise be hard to include how radical this
was at the time. We wouldn't want the film to pretend everything was
fine and dandy when both women and blacks instead faced a struggle
against racial and sexual discrimination.
So, i found Hidden Figures to be a really good film. The main plot is
about two, separate, black women who wind up working in the most
important sectors of Project Mercury. They face difficulties due to the
racial segregation in place at the time (although the film doesn't
hammer on this, fortunately) and to their being women, all topped with
some good ol' bureaucracy for extra difficulty. Through their
intelligence and hard work, they manage to contribute significantly to
the mission and mark a milestone in Aerospace flight, racial equality,
and women's suffrage, all in one go.
Taraji Henson, who plays Katherine, has the more interesting role; she
"fights The Man" in key scene, and is the one who is has the most
success. She has also some "real life" scenes which do not hurt the
development of the film.
Octavia Spencer, who plays Dorothy, has a smaller role, but she does a
fantastic job with what little she has, often getting more out of a
stare or some timid silence than most of the white cast.
The overtly-beloved Jim Parson plays the same identical character as he
does in Big Bang Theory because he isn't capable of doing otherwise.
Kevin Costner dominates his role, which unfortunately, due to annoying
things such as realism and historical accuracy, is too small for a
massive actor such as him.
The film does kind of drag on towards the end, and for some idiotic
reason starts to play the "victory sequence" complete with heroic
fanfare when the spacecraft finally completes its mission, while it's
obviously clear to anyone in the audience, that the hero (Katherine)
has already won, and is basically just doing a victory lap.
I would wholeheartedly recommend Hidden Figures to just about everyone.
The historical recreation is spot on, the direction is faultless, it
has good pacing, good acting, the script is simplistic but yet
agreeable, and it has something for everyone: it inspires, it
invigorates, and it limits the amount of screen time that Parson gets.
My vote:
8/10 - it does its job well.
yay for IMDb formatting.