The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Oprah sure can bring the crazy ugly is an amazing fierce way. Now, is that good or bad - I'm not quite sure, but definitely entertaining.

The story of Henrietta Lacks biological cells being taken for medical purposes without her family's knowledge or permission has lasting repercussions on her family's mental health and relationships.

I have not read the book, but after viewing this I plan on it.

It's a good biographical drama, but the only problem is its not what exactly the title says. If you believed to learn about Henrietta Lacks and went to see it, you might end disappointingly. Because she was the only topic of the story, not the actual story, except a few glimpses. It is like you watched 'Infamous' or 'Capote', instead of 'In Cold Blood'. That's what like this film. Yet not a bad film.

A writer pursuing the family members of a person who lived in the mid 20th century, because she was a medical phenomenon. Her cells used to treat cancer, despite she had died of cancer, leaving her young kids behind. Her descendants not aware of how things work in the medical research, only misguided by others, finally, set to discover the truth themselves about all the fuss.

It was nominated for the Emmy, but did not win. Oprah was okay, but Rose Byrne impressed me. Except a misleading title, it is a good film, but I really wanted/want to know the Henrietta Lacks. That's funny, because they have told us an unnecessary story. I hope somebody would make a film about actual Henrietta Lacks!

5.5/10

9/8/17. Since I read the book I was so looking forward to seeing this with Winfrey. Sadly, it was somewhat of a disappointment, especially if you have read the book and enjoyed it. I just loved the book because it was so well-written. Though the movie did cover the book rather adequately the emphasis on the infighting among Lacks's adult children made the movie uncomfortable to watch. These adult children were not educated. Winfrey's portrayal of Debbie Lacks was spot-on as well- meaning daughter who wanted to learn more about her mother but was fraught with mental health issues that made her labile and unreasonable most of the time. Byrne did a find job of portraying Skloot. You will actually feel sorry for her because of how much grief she had to go through to get the facts right and pay homage to Henrietta Lacks and her contribution to medical research. I don't think this movie is worth watching, but the book is definitely worth reading.

I was so excited to see this movie, as the book has been on my list to read for awhile. I had not gotten around to reading the book prior to seeing the movie & perhaps that would have helped?

The movie is disjointed & makes little sense. It is primarily about Henrietta's daughter & her relationship with the book's author. I was okay with that, but characters were never explained & many decisions in the film & dialogue made no sense b/c the story wasn't flushed out enough to understand the importance of the choices or dialogue. For example the "talk to the men" theme is made a big deal of in the beginning. It's repeated several times. It's never explained though. Why were they insistent that Skloot could only talk to the men. It came from several characters, but then most of the movie is spent NOT talking to the men. It never made any sense. Some character's behavior was not explained until almost the end of the film, which really hurt the viewer's ability to empathize & warm to the characters.

It was such a shame as there were many great actors who performed well, but ultimately the lack of background info & poor choices, made this movie a mess. I had such high hopes :-( I'm still looking fwd to reading the book, maybe that will fill in the huge gaps of the movie. You won't miss much if you skip this one!

I was hoping for so much more. I have not read the book, so I don't know how well the film depicted the book. I just felt utterly confused at some scenes. The editing was disjointed and parts of the story seemed to be missing, jumping from one emotion or conversation to another with no explanation. I love Rose Byrne but her character was clearly just a sidekick and there was NO chemistry with Ms. O, I wonder if they even got along during filming?