The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (HBO) - General Discussion

[starri]

PTV already put up the trailer, but here it is again.

I'm really excited about this.  The one drawback is the Big O starring.  I absolutely think that Oprah's a pretty good actress, and she deserved the Oscar she was nominated for, but the Oprah from The Color Purple is not the Oprah of today.  Do you ever really forget that you're watching Oprah?  Still, I know her involvement got this made, and more people should know the story.  And with Reg E Cathy, Courtney B Vance, and especially Renee Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta, the cast is pretty uniformly great.

I also get a little iffy with the fact that Rebecca Skloot (the book's author) is a character.  She went out of her way to not make the story about her, and she was very respectful of Deborah Lacks (who didn't entirely trust her), but it kind of teeters on the edge of a White Savior narrative.  The fact that the story seems to highlight that Skloot is an outsider helps.

[Primetimer]

A massive book becomes a focused, excellent film, thanks in large part to one remarkable performance.

View the full article

[verysimple]

I'm so glad Oprah is getting back into acting. She's so great, and I still think about how she was such a revelation in The Color Purple, in a role that required her to have zero vanity, but then she became OPRAH! to the point where you couldn't really forget that it was her.

I had also been wondering why every ad I had seen had Oprah's face plastered on it, despite it being (ostensibly) the story of Henrietta. This write-up helps me understand that a bit better - that it's not *just* a marketing gimmick because, well, OPRAH!

[dcalley]

I thought there was too much of Skloot in the book, so I'm not too surprised to read this:

Quote

But she’s so prominent that at times (through no fault of Byrne, who has a nice rapport with Winfrey) Henrietta Lacks begins to feel like another film about what a white person feels about a historically important black person’s life.

from Oprah Winfrey Stuns In The Otherwise Disappointing ‘The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks’ by Alan Sepinwall

[yourmomiseasy]

Oprah was on some talk show the other day and they showed a clip from this. She is amazing. She 100% becomes the character and no Oprah peeks through. I'm not a giant Oprah fan, but I'll probably watch this just to see her performance.

[methodwriter85]

15 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

Oprah was on some talk show the other day and they showed a clip from this. She is amazing. She 100% becomes the character and no Oprah peeks through. I'm not a giant Oprah fan, but I'll probably watch this just to see her performance.

I genuinely feared for Rebecca at times when Deborah went manic. Those scenes were great. She's definitely thrown her hat into the Emmy race.

Although I do feel disappointed that we still got to know so little about Henrietta other than she really liked red nail polish and carnival rides. I thought for sure the opening scene of the book would be the opening scene of the movie, and I was wrong.

[dcalley]

That was remarkably just like reading the book (though it's been a couple of years). The audio book is 12h30m, so it's impressive that I can't think of too much that was left out of this 1h30m movie.

[paramitch]

I'm delighted Oprah's acting again. I thought she was not only terrific in "The Color Purple," but honestly even better in "Beloved," which despite some adaptation problems I still found really powerful.

[Browncoat]

I think I must have expected something different.  That felt less like the story of Henrietta and her family (and her cells) than it did the story of how to write a book.  Or, more specifically, how to write this book.

Oprah, however, was amazing.  Reminded me a lot of Sofia, her character in The Color Purple.

[DollEyes]

My verdict: loved it! It reminded me of Hidden Figures, another true story about African-American women who have made a huge positive impact on science that I loved. The writing and the directing were great, but the acting was flawless, especially from Rose Byrne, Renee Elise Goldberry, Rocky Carroll, Courtney B. Vance, Reg E. Cathey & Oprah Winfrey, who was Deborah, not Oprah. Every actor who had scenes with Oprah not only held their own, they made her better. If Oprah and this movie win Emmys, they'll deserve them, as far as I'm concerned.

[attica]

I wanted more of the science. I wanted more of a deep dive into Henrietta's treatment, why they took the cells in the first place, and the scientific response to the cells not dying. I get why this project didn't do it, with only an hour and a half, and with Oprah's mighty performance to showcase, but: I still wanted it.

[Sheenieb]

Quote

I think I must have expected something different.  That felt less like the story of Henrietta and her family (and her cells) than it did the story of how to write a book.  Or, more specifically, how to write this book.

Oprah, however, was amazing.  Reminded me a lot of Sofia, her character in The Color Purple.

While the performances were great, I was disappointed. I understand that due to time restraints the movie could only scratch the surface, but the book is so huge that it would work best as a series. Maybe Oprah could bring it to OWN. It would fit well there.

Throughout the book and the movie I thought Rebecca deserved a medal for dealing with the Lacks family, but I had to remind myself that there's a lot of pain and anger there for good reason.

[kassa]

I know a physician who trained at Hopkins in the 50s and he told me how horrified he and other New Yorkers and non-southerners were at the systemic racism there. Among other things, they were instructed to address white patients as Mr./Mrs Last Name, but  black patients by their first names. That made the villainous portrayal of the staff pretty believable to me.

[AgentRXS]

I thought it was great but too short. I too almost forgot I was watching Oprah, and wished there were more Henrietta scenes. I especially liked the "choking" scene and the honest reaction from Rebecca. I'm glad they didn't portray her as tolerating a bunch of bullshit just to have access to the Lacks family.  I also thought her getting answers from John Hopkins that the Lacks family couldn't was realistic, and not White Savior-heavy (Deborah's "You just go on being white, girl, do your thing"  was sadly on the mark).  Great movie and I could see it collecting an Emmy or two.

[starri]

I think the story would have supported a two-part movie, but I think I kind of understand why they went the way they did.  I haven't read the book since it was first published, but I think I remember Skloot saying that there were things that she left out in consideration of Henrietta's family.

They probably also figured that the story in the present was what was going to connect with audiences.  If this had been filmed after Hidden Figures' success, they might have thought differently.

I actually had to take a minute to compose myself when they mentioned that Elsie had gotten a pneumoencephalogram while she was committed in Crownsville.  It's an old, incredibly barbaric type of brain imaging that was blessedly replaced by CT scans and MRIs.  I have a hard enough time thinking about an adult having to endure it, trying to imagine a little girl who was probably autistic being forced to was like getting punched.

Oprah was fantastic.  She absolutely nailed Deborah's manic phases.  

[verysimple]

Having now watched it, I too which they had done it as a miniseries - there was so much more to the story that could have been dug into. but Oprah was amazing.

For those interested, Radiolab re-posted it's original story on Henrietta Lacks, produced a few years ago with Rebecca Skloot - the original story was done when she was still writing the book, so it was basically a preview of everything that was to come. But if you haven't listened to it, you'll be interested to know that they use a lot of the recordings Rebecca made on her journeys with Deborah Lacks - re-listening this weekend, I was genuinely surprised at how similar at least some of the recordings were to what ended up in the movie.

It was a really good companion piece to the movie.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/radiolab-extra-henrietta-lacks/

[AuntiePam]

On 4/23/2017 at 2:38 PM, attica said:

I wanted more of the science. I wanted more of a deep dive into Henrietta's treatment, why they took the cells in the first place, and the scientific response to the cells not dying. I get why this project didn't do it, with only an hour and a half, and with Oprah's mighty performance to showcase, but: I still wanted it.

Me too.  I had the same reaction after reading the book.  We're left wondering what's the focus of the story.  Is it the miracle of the HeLa cells?  That Henrietta's family was cheated?  There seemed to be two stories to tell, and the one about Henrietta's family ended up being much more compelling than the story of those miraculous cells. 

Why couldn't Skloot or one of those scientists do a better job explaining the science to Henrietta's family?  It's ridiculous for Deborah to be led to believe that her mother could be cloned, and understandable that she'd be frightened and anxious -- even for a minute.  It looks like she came to terms with it and found some joy in her mother's continued existence, even if it was in a form that could only be seen under a microscope. 

But yeah, Oprah was amazing.  So was everyone else in the Lacks family. 

[verysimple]

  On 4/23/2017 at 3:38 PM, attica said:

I wanted more of the science. I wanted more of a deep dive into Henrietta's treatment, why they took the cells in the first place, and the scientific response to the cells not dying. I get why this project didn't do it, with only an hour and a half, and with Oprah's mighty performance to showcase, but: I still wanted it.

Me too.  I had the same reaction after reading the book.  We're left wondering what's the focus of the story.  Is it the miracle of the HeLa cells?  That Henrietta's family was cheated?  There seemed to be two stories to tell, and the one about Henrietta's family ended up being much more compelling than the story of those miraculous cells. 

Why couldn't Skloot or one of those scientists do a better job explaining the science to Henrietta's family?  It's ridiculous for Deborah to be led to believe that her mother could be cloned, and understandable that she'd be frightened and anxious -- even for a minute.  It looks like she came to terms with it and found some joy in her mother's continued existence, even if it was in a form that could only be seen under a microscope. 

But yeah, Oprah was amazing.  So was everyone else in the Lacks family. 

seriously - listen to the radiolab episode that I linked to. Skloot specifically talks about the fact that when the lab techs came to take more of the Lacks' blood, or Deborah would try to find out what happened, the techs would talk about "cloning" and make references to things like Dolly the sheep - so she literally jumped to the (not completely crazy) conclusion that they had cloned her mother. It's not that they were stupid, but they weren't geneticists or scientists, and you had a bunch of scary scientists who spouted a bunch of technical jargon at them instead of sitting down and actually trying to EXPLAIN things in a language that a layperson would understand. Skloot was the first person to come along who took the time to actually understand what they needed, and not just treat them like more lab rats.

I say this as a lawyer who knows too many people like this in my own profession - there are people who are more interested in showing off how "smart" they are by using a lot of technical, specialized, professional jargon than by actually helping others.

[starri]

I'm confused by a lot of the criticism that I'm seeing specifically in regards to the movie (not so much the book) about this being yet another white savior narrative with Skloot as the focus.

I'm keenly aware that I'm saying this as a white man, but the movie I watched seemed to be about Deborah finding out about her mother.  Am I just being blind here?  I'm honestly asking, because I do generally like to think of myself as sensitive about this kind of thing.

[AgentRXS]

Quote

I'm confused by a lot of the criticism that I'm seeing specifically in regards to the movie (not so much the book) about this being yet another white savior narrative with Skloot as the focus.

I could see how it could be interpreted that way. Especially in contrast to the scenes of Courtney Vance's character trying to con the Lacks family just prior to Skloots arrival. So here comes this little white girl, to save the day and help the family get the answers they are looking for (at her own cost), unlike the big bad wolf black con man that was suing Deborah for all she's worth.

But as I said upthread, white privilege does exist, especially in parts of the South, and it isn't implausible that Rebecca could get access to information that the Lacks family couldn't. Its just the sad truth about parts of our society, whether it paints a white Savior narrative or not.

I was wondering if the Lacks family received any money off the profits of the book, and it seems Skloot did  set up a Foundation for the descendants of the Lacks family, especially used to help fund their college educations.  Good for her.  I don't remember if that was included in the movie's epilogue or not.

[Archery]

On 4/25/2017 at 10:18 AM, starri said:

I'm confused by a lot of the criticism that I'm seeing specifically in regards to the movie (not so much the book) about this being yet another white savior narrative with Skloot as the focus.

I'm keenly aware that I'm saying this as a white man, but the movie I watched seemed to be about Deborah finding out about her mother.  Am I just being blind here?  I'm honestly asking, because I do generally like to think of myself as sensitive about this kind of thing.

Imo, I think it's a knee jerk reaction whenever a white character is part of a black story.  Sometimes, yes, writers are lazy and use white people as a window into black lives (see Dangerous Minds) and you learn more about the lone white character than the black ones.  But I do think this "trope" label is overused. White people are allowed to be part of black people's stories without being accused of taking over or "saving" them.  One character's complexity doesn't necessarily have to be at the expense of all the rest.  Again, imo, this is nowhere near a white savior movie.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One Emmy nomination for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:

OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Reese Witherspoon (Big Little Lies), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies), Jessica Lange (Feud: Bette and Joan), Oprah Winfrey (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), and Chrissy Metz (This Is Us) at The Hollywood Reporter's drama actress round table: