An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
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Reviews
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.
I guess I'll add my voice to the others here... As much as I loved the book, I was disappointed by the movie. The book had a balance between the family and the science. This movie emphasized Henrietta's daughter Deborah and how the source material for the book was gathered. There were some flashbacks to Henrietta's life and occasional references to the impact of HeLa cells on modern medicine, but not nearly enough in my opinion. While the book dove into the deep end, the movie just chooses to splash around in the shallow end and fails to focus on Henrietta, which is where the emphasis should really be. It left me feel like I was watching a Lifetime Television movie.Maybe its because they didn't think they had enough time... This was an HBO Film, so they could easily have done it as a 2 or 3 part series to stretch out and cover more of what the movie missed. As it stands, I would still love to see a documentary that picks up where the movie left off.
I didn't read the book but I know its fame and praise. So for me the film worked very well knowing more about the process of writing the book and Henrietta's family than what the immortal cells did to mankind. I think who read the book didn't like this kind of p.o.w. I understand, but the film itself is very well done.And I will read the book as soon as I can.
I read the book years ago and thought it was terrific. I was very excited to hear that it was going to be made into a movie and waited a long time for its fruition. What a disappointment! I watched it to the end, but honestly, almost turned it off several times. It was nothing like the book as I remember it. I wish I could un-watch this and get the 1 hour,35 minutes I spent watching it back.
