‘Hidden Figures’ will make you pine for a better world than our own

‘Hidden Figures’
Director: Theodore Melfi
Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer
Rating: PG-13
3 (out of 5) Globes

First “Moana,” now “Hidden Figures”: Feel-good crowd pleasers are for grumps now, too. When the new Disney opus arrived days after the election, its message about triumphing against adversity rang like profound gospel, even for those who’d usually find such sentiments stock. But “Moana” has nothing on “Hidden Figures.” Here’s a film that arrives at the tail-end of a brutal year for diversity, in which we watch a trio of black women in the early 1960s fighting for, and succeeding in getting, power. Oh, and the baddies are racists (and Russians).

Timeliness shouldn’t ever be a mark for excellence. But the barndoor broad “Hidden Figures” would likely be entertaining at any time. It’s cornball done with relative skill, though its three terrific and lovable leads certainly help. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae gamely play Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson — three underheralded real-life eggheads who, at that time, would have struggled to advance anywhere, and particularly in the STEM world. And yet through pluck, luck and, of course, uncommon genius, they rise up from low-level positions in NASA, each eventually playing small but key roles in the early days of the American space race.

There are plenty of bigots to go around, but even they are as diverse as the rainbow. There’s Jim Parsons, as the NASA techie who never learns to chill over sharing a work space with Henson’s Katherine. Kirsten Dunst plays the administrator who swears she’s not prejudiced but can’t help proving otherwise. And since this is a movie about how minorities are people, too, Kevin Costner’s obviously present as well, just as in “Black or White” and “McFarland, USA.” (Although he hasn’t been this sharp since “Jack Ryan.” The onetime biggest movie star in the world needs to stick to killer supporting turns.)

Everyone (except Parsons) comes around eventually, but this isn’t another movie in which the black experience is told from a white perspective. The white folks are mere supporting characters. Our front-and-center heroes are Katherine, Dorothy and Mary, and it’s their struggles, their suffering and their legitimately thrilling moments of triumph that steer the ship. Each actress gets a big show-off blow-up, the best of which is the moment when Henson’s mousy Katherine finally sounds off to her coworkers about their mistreatment, ranging from general cold shoulders to a distantly-located colored bathroom to actual segregated coffee urns. Thanks to Henson, it’s a moment that transcends the token tell-off speech, delivered as a fiery declaration that tears a whole in this nice crowd pleaser. When her speech works, it reminds you how much of a shame it is that “Hidden Figures” is only a movie. Emerging back into the real world and firing up the Twitter feed to see what horrors you missed is the downer ending neither the film nor we deserve.

Follow Matt Prigge on Twitter @mattprigge