You might think it would be impossible at this point for Ms. Winfrey’s movie in more ways than one: Deborah, a woman who is both hesitant to learn more about her family history and prone to manic episodes, is a whirlwind of a character. ![]() Winfrey, also an executive producer here), one of Henrietta’s daughters, who gradually comes to trust Rebecca and helps her gain access to other family members. The core relationship in the film is the one between Rebecca and Deborah Lacks (Ms. Skloot of course wrote the book upon which the movie is based, but she is also a character in the story, a white woman intruding on a black family that at first is not inclined to share information about the matriarch or the rest of the clan. With this, scientists will be able to perform experiments that they never could on a living human being.” “What makes this sample so unique is that this is the first cell line we have discovered in over 30 years of trying that can survive and reproduce indefinitely. George Gey (Reed Birney) explains in a 1950s-style newsreel in the film’s early moments. “In this jar, we have a sample of cancerous human tissue,” Dr. It tells a rich and unsettling story that begins with the woman of the title (played in flashbacks by Renée Elise Goldsberry), who died of cancer in 1951 but not before unwittingly making an invaluable contribution to science: cancer cells that reproduced outside the body. Wolfe, who had a starry cast at his disposal headed by Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. The movie, also titled “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” was directed by George C. ![]() This fascinating tale really wanted to be a six- or eight-episode mini-series. If it sounds as if effectively truncating such an intricate, provocative book into a 93-minute movie would be nearly impossible, well, the film version that has its premiere Saturday night on HBO proves the point. ![]() One of the most acclaimed nonfiction books of 2010, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” began as an investigation of a medical miracle but became a gripping, poignant story about racism, shoddy scientific ethics and a sprawling family’s painful experiences with both.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |