Hidden Figures (2016) - Melfi's easily digestible ode to some unsung heroines

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Three women of color tower as formidable heroines on this poster for Theodore Melfi's Hidden Figures

The 'space race' in 1960s America: The Soviets have succeeded in being the first to send a human into space, and NASA is under tremendous pressure to attain the upper hand on the new frontier. A group of black American women also work towards reaching this goal.

Hidden Figures is written by Allison Schroeder (Mean Girls 2 (2011, TV movie)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Theodore Melfi (Winding Roads (1999)), based on the non-fiction book Hidden Figures (2016) by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Segregation falls by the wayside in favor of reaching a common goal in the course of the work described in the plot outline above, - eyes are opened to the fact that brainpower has no skin color. But the sympathetic narrative lacks opposition; the villain here is 'the times', and that gets boring. The funky score (made with help from Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me 3 (2017))) and the honest performances from all help this polished, safe product (it feels more as such than as a film) go down without fail.

 

Related posts:

Theodore Melfi: Going in Style (2017) - Flip the bird to banks with game veteran stars (writer)

St. Vincent (2014) - Melfi debuts with a heartwarming dramedy (writer/director)

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 235.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 9.43 times its cost)

[Hidden Figures premiered 1 December (Virginia) and runs 127 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 2016 in Georgia. Although based on real people, several aspects of the segregation and racism shown in the film are entirely fictional constructs. The film opened #18 to a 515k $ first weekend in 25 theaters in North America, where it peaked some weeks later at #1 with a 22.8 mil. $ weekend before grossing finally 169.6 mil. $ (71.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 13.3 mil. $ (5.6 %) and the UK with 7.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It lost Best Picture to Moonlight, Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer (The Witches (2020)) to Viola Davis in Fences and Adapted Screenplay to Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for Moonlight. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, 2 Grammys, 2 Golden Globes, won 2 National Board of Review awards, among many other honors. Melfi returned with The Black Ghiandola (2017, short), Daughter (2020, short) and theatrically with The Starling (2021). Taraji P. Henson (Empire (2015-20)) returned in The Simpsons (2017, TV-series) and theatrically in Proud Mary (2018); Spencer in The Shack (2017); and Janelle Monáe (Harriet (2019)) in 8 music videos and a TV-series prior to her theatrical return in Welcome to Marwen (2018). Hidden Figures is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hidden Figures?