Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

adonis98-743-186503 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. Oprah's bland perfomance makes for a film so boring and so bad that makes it the most boring drama i have ever seen. From the uninteresting plot to the terrible perfomances. (0/10)

cowgoesmoo I guess I'll add my voice to the others here... As much as I loved the book, I was disappointed by the movie. The book had a balance between the family and the science. This movie emphasized Henrietta's daughter Deborah and how the source material for the book was gathered. There were some flashbacks to Henrietta's life and occasional references to the impact of HeLa cells on modern medicine, but not nearly enough in my opinion. While the book dove into the deep end, the movie just chooses to splash around in the shallow end and fails to focus on Henrietta, which is where the emphasis should really be. It left me feel like I was watching a Lifetime Television movie.Maybe its because they didn't think they had enough time... This was an HBO Film, so they could easily have done it as a 2 or 3 part series to stretch out and cover more of what the movie missed. As it stands, I would still love to see a documentary that picks up where the movie left off.

ruthyadel I read this book years ago and couldn't put it down. Deborah's (Oprah) story was not the intended focal point of the book, but as I remember her interactions with the author sort of took over. In that way the movie did well focusing on the relationship between the two. A huge part of the book was not just about the science or Henrietta herself but her family and a young writer getting herself into more than just a science book. I enjoyed it

phd_travel I watched this show for the smiling and lovely Rose Byrne. Plus the subject is interesting. Unfortunately the focus is a bit off. More needed to be shown on the effects and use of her cells on medical science apart from a brief blast at the beginning. The focus of this movie was on the writer's difficulties with the children of Henrietta Lacks and their various mental and emotional problems. It seemed more like a showcase for Oprah to show her acting skills which are pretty good.It's like half a good movie missing the main part.