Review – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Alas for Henrietta Lacks. Doctors took her cells without notice or consent and turned her into a cornerstone of medical research without even acknowledging her existence. And then she isn’t even the subject of her own movie. Instead, this is the tale of how author Rebecca Skloot (Rose Byrne in an oddly annoying performance) researched her book. But of course the real star of the show is Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. You can tell she’s the star because Oprah Winfrey plays her. Thus this becomes the story of how challenging it is to write when your collaborators spend their days wavering between eccentric and genuinely mentally ill. I was particularly fascinated by the scene toward the end when the two surviving children get to meet their mother’s cells, which was both strangely touching and just plain strange. Mildly amusing