watch the immortal life of henrietta lacks 2017

WATCH THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS 2017 MOVIE
WATCH THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS 2017 SERIES

That the upbeat ending is found in the white woman’s story rather than the black daughter’s only exacerbates the misplaced focus, but there are issues before that. Though the film pays cursory acknowledgement to the family’s suspicions, the film itself is too eager to take on Skloot’s perspective.

WATCH THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS 2017 SERIES

READ MORE: Emmy Predictions 2017: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or MovieĪlas, t’is not to be. When they get together, there’s an awkward period when Deborah has to feel out Skloot’s motivations, and, for a moment, the film feels like it’s ready to take us down a more dangerous path than its light jazz soundtrack and boilerplate biopic structuring foretells. Deborah’s so pained by the quest and frustrated by her failure that she suffers a stroke just before Skloot can make contact. So one can imagine how they might react when some lady wants to use them to write a book about their mother. She first contacts Deborah Lacks (Winfrey), a woman in her 50s who desperately wants to learn more about her mother. The doctors referred to the strain as HeLa, and when pressed about who was responsible for providing the miraculous cells, gave the false name of Helen Lane, for fear of reciprocity as much as doctor-patient confidentiality. Henrietta never saw any money for her “donation,” and this fact, combined with the erasure of her identity, bred a deep distrust of the medical community, authority figures, and people in general within her children. You see, scientists collected her tissue sample and started performing experiments on her cells - a never-before-seen strain that could be reproduced indefinitely - without ever properly acknowledging Henrietta.

WATCH THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS 2017 MOVIE

READ MORE: 2017 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding TV Movie Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 40 Films the Director Wants You to See Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 50 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Reboot' Review: Judy Greer Boosts a Meta Hulu Comedy That Never Really Gets Going 'Andor' Review: Tony Gilroy's 'Star Wars' Series Revives the Rebellion We meet Skloot, a name so quirky you need to remind yourself this is a true story every time you hear it, in 1999 when she starts pursuing her book idea, and it’s through Skloot we come to know Henrietta Lacks, a woman who walked into a hospital in 1951 for treatment and, unbeknownst to her, proceeded to aid in “every major medical breakthrough” of the next 50 years.

Serving as yet another example of a storyteller stealing focus from the story she’s trying to tell, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” primarily tracks Rebecca Skloot (Byrne), who wrote the book on which the movie is based, instead of Lacks or her family. That might be a viable option if the “Henrietta Lacks” emotional core wasn’t built on rage, but - as is admirably encapsulated in Winfrey’s performance - there’s too much suffering here to settle for complacency. Chronicling the legal but unethical theft of a black woman’s cells by white doctors, the film proves to be more concerned with finding a happy ending than discussing how the systemic nature of America’s racial rift has adversely affected a family, if not generations of families. All of these issues are of great relevancy to our current culture, and all of these issues are pertinent themes of “ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the new HBO film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.

Watch the immortal life of henrietta lacks 2017