The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks stop short of directly indicting specific parties on the family's behalf. The resulting film is moving and accessible, but it offers no absolution.

| Sep 10, 2019

The stand out is Winfrey herself as the emotionally, mentally and physically ill Deborah.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 6, 2019

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will resonate with audiences as a story of major loss and finding something worthwhile to hold onto despite it.

| Jun 14, 2018

I want everyone to read this book. But we're going to have to pretend the movie never happened.

| Jun 13, 2018

Imagine having to endure the emotional labor of seeing your own story told, without the comfort of knowing that you control it or enjoying compensation for it either. Henrietta Lacks raises questions about ethics, both artistic and biomedical.

| Sep 26, 2017

As a portrait of unlikely female friendship and impassioned campaigning it did justice to little-known heroine Lacks.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 13, 2017

If the film pushes Henrietta to the edges, it is at least to make room for a performance from Winfrey that tells us all there is to know about the damage that loss, lies and injustice can do to a child, to an adult, to a family and to a society.

| Jun 13, 2017

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has a vision that is as richly loving as it is clear-eyed about the racist sins that continue to dog us as a culture and a nation.

| May 25, 2017

Real-life tear-jerker shows how lies hurt, truth heals.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 2, 2017

Even if it sends you to the book to learn more, The Immortal Life will have done its job.

| Apr 26, 2017

Henrietta Lacks achieved a kind of immortality after her death. But Skloot's book and, now, this gripping film adaptation will ensure that the world knows who she was.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2017

Winfrey's humane and riveting performance may make this adaptation worth a watch.

| Apr 24, 2017

The idea behind The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was honorable and no doubt brought a very powerful story to the surface, but it touched base without following through on many important aspects of her story.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 24, 2017

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a good movie with a great performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 21, 2017

The Immortal Life is too abridged and disorderly to reveal very much.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 21, 2017

Winfrey delivers a performance that's on another level. It can be challenging, even when she's convincing in a film or on a series, to forget that we're watching Oprah. But as Deborah Lacks... Oprah Winfrey completely disappears.

| Apr 21, 2017

The film awkwardly and cumbersomely arrives at its revelations.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 21, 2017

Ninety minutes on the origins of the so-called HeLa cell line sound about as dramatically inviting as a teeth-cleaning. But Winfrey's performance, as Henrietta's tormented youngest daughter, Deborah, is jump-off-the-screen terrific.

| Original Score: B | Apr 21, 2017

Ms. Winfrey's Deborah can jump from settled to agitated and filled with perseverating thoughts in the blink of an eye. It's a role that could fall into caricature, but Ms. Winfrey brings vulnerability and believability to the part.

| Apr 21, 2017

The world does not need the white gaze on the black family ever again in film (or otherwise).

| Original Score: 4.5/10 | Apr 21, 2017