The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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

I agree that the film seems rushed and busy. However, there were some wonderful scenes here. For those who did not read the book, there's a reason why the movie focused on Deborah and her family. When the author began her journey she didn't know much at all about Henrietta Lacks the person. The only way she was able to learn about Henrietta was through the family that is left behind, and then she had to rely on old memories from the older members of the family. Because this became Deborah's project, she became the lens through which Skloot learned about Henrietta.It was too bad there is not very much science itself in the film. That might resolve some of the misperceptions, even in these reviews. Henrietta was not cloned. There was not another Henrietta born. Instead, the Hopkins researchers found that the cells from her tumor had the capacity to divide endlessly. The cells in our body do the same thing, especially when we are young and growing, but that multiplication ends when we die. The HeLa cells have become the "guinea pigs" of many research projects. Because there had been such a demand in 1950s cell biology for a cell line that would keep replicating, Hopkins offered this discovery to the world, free of charge. Hopkins did not profit from it.But there was something transcendent about Winfree's portrayal and Deborah's understanding of the HeLa cells. Deborah really believed that they WERE Henrietta, that they were Henrietta's way of doing good in the world. Toward the end, when Deborah and her brother visit Hopkins and see the cells in their frozen chambers, and then they view these living cells through the microscope, it was as if these two people, who were so young when their mother died that they hardly knew her, now could have a reunion with Henrietta, just because they were in the presence of the cells. Don't count their experience as ignorance or naivete; I think they discovered something in those moments: their mother was present in their lives from the beginning.

I read the book and thought one the smartest things the writer did was to include the human side of the story. Watchers who want to see the scientific side of the story will be disappointed. Being a native of a place not far from Clover, I thought they did well with the culture of the family. The accent was way off but probably easier for the audience to understand. Too bad they didn't film in that depressed part of Virginia. Again the money went elsewhere.Oprah becomes the character in a way that you can forget about her other work. Oprah's acting is still a wonder to see.

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?