Where on earth has the true story of three female, African-American mathematicians who were key players in the Mercury launch and NASA’s space race been hiding?
I’ve lost some of you already, I know; math movies are rarely sexy. Such films usually involve watching socially awkward characters scribble on chalkboards to the point where your mind wanders, wondering if your Grade 11 math teacher ever got his terrible come-uppance.
But in the hands of Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent), working from Margot Lee Shetterly’s non-fiction book, every squeak of chalk in Hidden Figures rings like a victorious “screw you” to the racist establishment that tried tirelessly to keep these women down.
The space race is going full bore in 1961, when Russia beat the U.S. into orbit, sending a dog, a satellite and then Yuri Gargarin into space before the Americans did. “How the hell did we find ourselves in second place in a two-man race?” a NASA big-wig wonders.
In an era pre-dating mechanized computer systems, NASA headquarters in Virginia included a pool of women doing the never-ending data grunt work of the space program. The “coloured computers” were a group of black women segregated in a dingy building on the far side of campus, a group loosely led by Dorothy Vaughan (Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer). Rising through the ranks were Mary Jackson (Janelle Morae) and Katherine Johnson (standout Taraji P. Henson), both commissioned to other — all white — departments.
There are several struggles going on at once here: Mary endeavours to add an engineering degree to her credentials, in a time when she can’t take the required classes at the all-white high school. Dorothy works a supervisory role with no supervisor’s pay, no matter how often she makes requests to a younger, painfully condescending white administrator (Kirsten Dunst). And child-prodigy Katherine is assigned to the prestigious Space Task group, led by Al Harrison (Kevin Costner); she does better work than any of the white men in the group but isn’t permitted to drink from the same coffee urn.
There are segregated water fountains, buses and lunch counters in the film, but it is the bathroom issue that proves to be the most uncomfortable — literally — for Katherine, who has to make a 40-minute round trip to use the only coloured bathroom facilities on the NASA campus. When Harrison finally learns the reason for her absences he smashes the coloured bathroom sign with a sledgehammer, declaring “here at NASA we all pee the same colour.”
We get a small glimpse into the personal lives of the trio: Katherine is a widow and mother of three daughters, pursued by a handsome National Guardsman (Mahershala Ali); Mary takes her fight to court. But the focus remains on the truly remarkable achievements of these pioneering women, bolstered by moving and very funny performances all around.
You’ll be mad, incredulous and inspired during Hidden Figures, a lively and informative film about women who relied on the fact that numbers don’t lie, and they don’t discriminate.
Hidden Figures opens Friday at International Village.
