The entire Lacks family becomes bitter and angry over a system that essentially took part of a mother they never really got to know, without anyone’s permission. Cathey), a man hardened by a criminal lifestyle into which he might not have fallen if he knew more about his mother. Deborah’s obsession with her mother makes her the natural leading lady of this story, but we also meet the aggressive Zakariyya ( Reg E. Not only did Henrietta grow up a young mother without much to her name, but her family tree developed fascinating subplots after her death. At one point, someone says “This story is crazy enough for three books!” Which makes it both too much and not quite enough for one film. And, worst of all, it feels like we get to know the woman writing this tale more than the person it’s about.
Rebecca becomes little more than an unnecessary sounding board for Deborah, who could have anchored the story on her own. Any one of these stories could have worked on their own, but the awkward blending of all three doesn’t work. It also tells the story of Deborah Lacks ( Oprah Winfrey), Henrietta’s daughter, who has become somewhat obsessed and damaged by the saga of her mother and how little she feels like she knows about a woman who has somehow become the property of the world. It also tells the story of journalist Rebecca Skloot ( Rose Byrne), the woman who spent a decade researching this strange story and wrote the bestselling book on which this film is based. Wolfe’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” premiering on HBO tomorrow night, tells Henrietta’s (Renee Elise Goldsberry) story. With the cells named HeLa, most of the world had no idea that it was the biological property of a Virginia mother who changed the world. Henrietta Lacks was the key that unlocked the door, leading to decades of medical advancements, including developments in the treatment of polio, Parkinsons, influenza, leukemia, and many more. For decades, scientists there had been trying to grow a cell line on which the medical industry could experiment in ways that they couldn’t do with living people.
Without the knowledge of Henrietta or her family, tissue from the tumor that killed her was taken from her body and essentially made immortal at Johns Hopkins. In 1951, after having five children, Lacks discovered that she had cervical cancer, from which she would pass away at a tragically young age of 31. What’s even more fascinating about her story is that she didn’t even know how much good she would do in the world after she died. Henrietta Lacks is one of those people who greatly impacted your life and you don’t even know her name.
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