The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (TV Movie 2017)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Directed by George C. Wolfe. With Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sylvia Grace Crim, Reed Birney, Karen Wheeling Reynolds. 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.

“Back in 2011, Rebeccas Skloot published u0026quot;The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacksu0026quot; and I read this excellent book. The thrust of the book was three-fold: about the contribution of Henriettau0026#39;s cells to medical research, about the life of Henrietta that Skloot was able to piece together with the help of her family and about her relationship with Henriettau0026#39;s family. This new film essentially breezes through the first two plot lines and focuses almost exclusively with the relationship between Skloot (Rose Byrne) and Henriettau0026#39;s mentally ill daughter, Deborah (Oprah Winfrey). Winfrey was amazingly good in her role…but this plot line seemed to be THE film at times and if you want to learn more about Henrietta as well as what made her cancer cells so important, I suggest you just read the book. Overall, well done but far, far from perfect.”