Delayed Reaction: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Pitch: A journalist tries to learn more about the woman whose immortalized cell line has been key to medical research ever since her death by interviewing her family decades later...starring Oprah.

I'm not the first person to bemoan the state of HBO Films. That's been a long-running complaint people have had. For a network that is so good at series, it's surprising how uninspired their movies have been. Even the ones that get Emmy love like Bessie, The Normal Heart, Game Change, or Too Big to Fail are mostly a collection of strong performances by great actors, rather than great films*. Then again, as I look back, I wonder how much of these complaints are similar to people complaining about Superbowl Commercials or SNL not being as good as they used to be. I think some of it is truth and some is perception. Granted, I don't remember many of the '90s films (mainly Cheaters which I really love), but I can say HBO has been following the same formula for at least a decade: cast as many big names as possible and hope there's a story. Even looking to something I've watched probably a dozen times, Something the Lord Made, isn't great filmmaking. Alan Rickman and Mos Def are just so engaging that I kept watching.

*For the record, Behind the Candelabra was a special case where it premiered at Cannes, played in theaters outside the U.S. and aired only on HBO in the U.S.

What I'm trying to say is that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the same formula that HBO has used for its films for a long time and delivers exactly the results you'd expect. Oprah is terrific. Like, it's shocking how good of an actress she is. Despite being so famous as Oprah - as a host - as a brand - she loses herself in her few acting performances. I stopped being aware that she was Oprah. In other words, she's a great actress. As much as I love Rose Byrne, she didn't have enough of a character to play for me to laud her work.

The structure of the film was odd. Most of it is in the film's present, with Rebecca Skloot (Byrne) researching a for a book on Henrietta Lacks with the help of Henrietta's daughter (Oprah). There are a number of flashbacks, but they are very scattered. Despite the title of the film, there's very little Henrietta Lacks in this. The film never decides what the focus is. Is this a story about Henrietta's life, the fallout from her death, or how Johns Hopkins screwed everyone in Henrietta's family over? As a result, the last act drums up some drama and makes up an end point.

At this point, HBO seems to have accepted that "TV Movie" is a genre and style as much 'blockbuster' or 'indie movie' is. They don't make movies that look like theatrical features. They make TV movies and accept all the trappings that go with the moniker. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is pretty good for what it is.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend