One of my all time favorites.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Blistering performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I agree that the film seems rushed and busy. However, there were some wonderful scenes here. For those who did not read the book, there's a reason why the movie focused on Deborah and her family. When the author began her journey she didn't know much at all about Henrietta Lacks the person. The only way she was able to learn about Henrietta was through the family that is left behind, and then she had to rely on old memories from the older members of the family. Because this became Deborah's project, she became the lens through which Skloot learned about Henrietta.It was too bad there is not very much science itself in the film. That might resolve some of the misperceptions, even in these reviews. Henrietta was not cloned. There was not another Henrietta born. Instead, the Hopkins researchers found that the cells from her tumor had the capacity to divide endlessly. The cells in our body do the same thing, especially when we are young and growing, but that multiplication ends when we die. The HeLa cells have become the "guinea pigs" of many research projects. Because there had been such a demand in 1950s cell biology for a cell line that would keep replicating, Hopkins offered this discovery to the world, free of charge. Hopkins did not profit from it.But there was something transcendent about Winfree's portrayal and Deborah's understanding of the HeLa cells. Deborah really believed that they WERE Henrietta, that they were Henrietta's way of doing good in the world. Toward the end, when Deborah and her brother visit Hopkins and see the cells in their frozen chambers, and then they view these living cells through the microscope, it was as if these two people, who were so young when their mother died that they hardly knew her, now could have a reunion with Henrietta, just because they were in the presence of the cells. Don't count their experience as ignorance or naivete; I think they discovered something in those moments: their mother was present in their lives from the beginning.

I was hoping for so much more. I have not read the book, so I don't know how well the film depicted the book. I just felt utterly confused at some scenes. The editing was disjointed and parts of the story seemed to be missing, jumping from one emotion or conversation to another with no explanation. I love Rose Byrne but her character was clearly just a sidekick and there was NO chemistry with Ms. O, I wonder if they even got along during filming?

I didn't read the book but I know its fame and praise. So for me the film worked very well knowing more about the process of writing the book and Henrietta's family than what the immortal cells did to mankind. I think who read the book didn't like this kind of p.o.w. I understand, but the film itself is very well done.And I will read the book as soon as I can.

I read the book years ago and thought it was terrific. I was very excited to hear that it was going to be made into a movie and waited a long time for its fruition. What a disappointment! I watched it to the end, but honestly, almost turned it off several times. It was nothing like the book as I remember it. I wish I could un-watch this and get the 1 hour,35 minutes I spent watching it back.