Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Reno Rangan
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
cowgoesmoo
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.
ruthyadel
I read this book years ago and couldn't put it down. Deborah's (Oprah) story was not the intended focal point of the book, but as I remember her interactions with the author sort of took over. In that way the movie did well focusing on the relationship between the two. A huge part of the book was not just about the science or Henrietta herself but her family and a young writer getting herself into more than just a science book. I enjoyed it
Renato Doho
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.
