Last week, I watched “Hidden Figures” with my sister. It was released on 10 March 2017 in Indonesia, quite late compared to its December 2016 premier at the US. And I’m glad I decided to watch it, since it was really one of the better movies I watched as of late. I even like it better than the more massively popular “La La Land”, which though had its share of capturing moments, was rather flat and uninteresting overall to me.
I know “Hidden Figures” primarily speaks about struggle in the work place as women, more specifically black women, when you face discrimination and unfair condition. And how your hard work can easily go unrecognized until much, much later, if at all.
But I relate to the movie at its more simple core: that work, in general, is no picnic.
There will be days when your job is piling up endlessly. There will be days when you’re tired and have zero motivation, but you still have to push through. You will have to face difficult colleagues, or unreasonable superior, or less than ideal condition. Often, feel of being overwhelmed is not just for one day, but for a long period of time.
Sometimes you may find you question yourself, “What the hell am I doing? What is it really am I pursuing, working this hard? Will this worth it in the end?”
By watching this movie, I am reminded that such conditions by no means is unique to my self.
Women, and I believe men, all over the world, are struggling with the same doubts everyday, some even might be with much bigger obstacles.
And that gives me some encouragement, a fresh inspiration to go on.
I think realizing that you are not alone and your circumstances is far more common than you think is powerful.
One thing I love about the movie is beside the work place struggle, it also showed the main characters’ home lives.
Wikipedia runs a brief naration regarding the historical accuracy of the events in “Hidden Figures” , and I don’t know how true the protrayal of the home lives were, but I truly found how Officer Jim Johnson proposed to the main heroine Katherine Goble was toes-curlingly sweet.
Like when Johnson said, “I know marrying you also means marrying your girls,” as the sign of his full acceptance to Katherine’s condition as a widow with three children. And also, “The day I met you, I called my Mama and told her I’ve found a woman I would like to marry.”
Also, when Johnson presented his ring he told, “This is my Mama’s ring, and he and my father has been married for 53 years.” And then at the end of the movie, there was a little note describing that Jim and Katherine Johnson had just celebrated their 56 anniversary in really live.
D’aaawww.
Isn’t it just kind of proposal and (ensuing marriage) every girl would dream of???
One thing that caught me off guard, though, is how old Kirsten Dunst looked on this movie.
She looked really… matronly.
She is just few years older than me.
I had to google to make sure it wasn’t theater make up purposely used to make her look older, and I found the internet community are also exclaiming their befuddlement about how aged Dunst looked.
In my mind I always saw her as… maybe not quite Torrence Shipman from “Bring it On”, I know she was getting older, but maybe more like Betty Warren from “Mona Lisa’s Smile”, where she was a perfect classic beauty.
By the way, no movie yet take “Mona Lisa’s Smile” place as my number one favorite (grown up) movie of all time. If you haven’t watched it already, I highly recommend it as well as “Hidden Figures”. Both are so poignant, era-appropriate fashionable, and I believe will well worth your time.
But, good for Dunst for finding a new niche for her acting. We cannot be a dazzling 20 twenty something heroine forever, right?
After the movie, I took my sister to dine at “Go! Curry” restaurant which I have been eyeing for sometimes.
This curry restaurant has interesting concept that you can “create your own” curry. They have selection of rice (regular steam rice, cilantro butter rice, aromatic yellow rice, etc.), choice of curries (brown curry, green curry, fancily named rogan josh, etc.), range of spiciness (mild to insanely hot), and variety of toppings (chicken, lamb, oxtail, mixed veggies, etc).
You choose one from each item, and the price will be determined by the topping.
This clever concept is what attracted me at the first place, and the curry admittedly tasted delicious. But for the tiny portion, it is quite expensive. Me and my sister just had one main curry dish each, we didn’t even order any drinks, and it still costed us IDR 200K (around USD 15).
Despite somewhat more poshly packaged, “Go! Curry” is still a chain restaurant, so I really didn’t find that bill justified. The ambiance of the restaurant (the one I visited was at the Kemang Village) is nothing special, either, so unless you don’t mind to spend pretty pennies for the sake of ‘trying’, just don’t bother.
Curry is so easy to make and a giant pot of home cooked one will be much, much more satisfying.
We did have a good time, though, and I hope I can have similar movie experience very soon.
Hidden Figures Score: 7.5/10
Go Curry Score: 6.5/10
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