The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-480P

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-360P

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-720P

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-480P

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-360P

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-720P

source: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Having not read the book, or the trades, or the press, nor having heard a word about this film, or Henrietta Lacks, I found this film to be just great. Oprah can really act, which I'd not seen before, and the cast was solid gold. HBO did a great job with this and I am grateful for the history lesson combined with such top shelf dramatic craftsmanship. I never would have chosen this film from the programming guide, but having segued while in the next room, it slid into my evening line up. Quite a pleasant surprise, I really enjoyed it. Oprah does a good one with less purple and a bit more blues.

The low score on IMDb I suspect the trailers gave the wrong impression, I think people were looking for the wonder Henrietta Lacks cells gave mankind but I took the movie for what it was, a story more focus on the family than on Henrietta Lacks. And I enjoyed it this way, learning of the pain it causes the Lacks family reveals how intelligent society discards the poor and the meek, it's a life lesson of the realities of life. The low score on IMDb might also be some can't handle the truth, I pray one day this family will get the billions they are entitled to.

This movie was AMAZING! I have not read the book but I plan to. I disagree with some of the negative reviews I read. The intended audience is everyone - those who read the book and others who did not or may not even know about the story. This movie does not focus on HeLa cells and the medical advances made because of them; this movie humanizes the story behind the HeLa cells. Who was Henrietta Lacks? Who were her offspring? When did they find out about their mother's cells being used? More amazingly, the movie analyzes how the discovery of their mother's cell impacted her children. On a different note, I don't understand how the family is not able to recover financially. It's unfortunate that the laws protect and benefit those with means and power. At minimum, the family should be able to recover for the intentional fraudulent activity directed toward them by the medical community (i.e. taking blood and who knows what other samples from the children of Henrietta under false pretenses).