Film

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Name: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Genre: Drama, History, TV Movie
Released: 2017
Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Rose Byrne, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Reg E. Cathey, Courtney B. Vance

Biopic

A measured, respectful account of Henrietta Lacks and her family's discovery that her cells—taken without consent in 1951—became foundational to modern medicine. Oprah and Rose Byrne anchor a quiet film about exploitation, legacy, and the people medical history forgot. For anyone moved by stories of dignity reclaimed.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a patient, carefully researched story about how science and family history collide, where the drama comes from ordinary people asking hard questions rather than from sensational turns.

Skip it if you need fast pacing or a tidy, self-contained plot; this deliberate, talky film moves at its own unhurried speed through years of family grief.

What it asks of you: At ninety-three minutes, it is unhurried and sober, with long conversational scenes that reward patience more than they reward quick emotional jolts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Harriet2019

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The Crown2016

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Immortals2015

Both examine how people persist in history, but where Lacks is a story of injustice, this is an artist's elegy about forgetting and the fragments we leave behind.

An Iranian filmmaker explores what it means to be remembered and erased, using performance and archive. Poetic and strange—a meditation on legacy in a completely different register from Lacks.

But Slow, experimental, cryptic. It will not explain itself to you.

Selma2014

David Oyelowo as Dr. King during the Alabama voting rights campaign. Restrained and powerful, focused on the tactical and moral stakes of one specific fight rather than hagiography.

But Some characters are paper-thin. The film occasionally prefers symbolism to complexity.

Just Mercy2019

A young defence lawyer fights to free innocent people from death row. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx are excellent, and the film's anger at injustice is earned and earned.

But Plays it fairly straight. Occasionally feels like it's ticking boxes rather than taking risks.

13th2016

Ava DuVernay's documentary traces the 13th Amendment and mass incarceration from slavery through today. Dense, furious, essential. Builds an argument you can't unsee.

But Relentless in pace and tone. If you need lightness or hope in the film, you won't find it here.

Mudbound2017

Two families—one Black, one white—sharecropping in Depression-era Mississippi. Gorgeous cinematography, and the film sits with moral complexity without resolving it into comfort.

But Bleak throughout. The pacing is deliberate. Violence arrives suddenly and shockingly.

Good Morning, Vietnam1987

Robin Williams as an irreverent radio DJ in Saigon, 1965. It's funny and alive, but underneath runs genuine rage at the machinery of war and the people it grinds.

But The comedy can feel dated and sometimes overwrites the serious parts. Some scenes have aged awkwardly.

Spotlight2015

A Boston Globe team investigates Catholic Church abuse over years of patient reporting. Slow-burn procedural that trusts you to feel the weight of the story without melodrama.

But Very quiet. No moments of cathartic release. If you need a clear victory, you'll leave unsatisfied.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Like Lacks, it's about violation and power within intimate spaces—how we harm the people closest to us and what we do with that knowledge.

Bergman's brutal six-episode masterpiece about a marriage unraveling. Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson in brutal, unguarded conversation. Television has almost never been this honest.

But Swedish 1973 minimalism. Long scenes of people talking about feeling empty. Sounds like penance.

The Tale2018

Both films are about reclaiming a stolen story—but The Tale is Fox herself rewriting her own past, investigating her younger self's surrender. It's Henrietta's story told from the inside out.

Jennifer Fox's documentary about her own sexual abuse in childhood, which she'd convinced herself was consensual love. Reconstructive, experimental, unbearably honest. Changes what you think a film can be.

But A true story about child sexual abuse. Some sequences are genuinely hard to watch. Not entertainment.