The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Too much Oprah

I watched the new HBO movie, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I hate to say it, but I didn’t much care for it. I very much liked the book, enough that I’ve made it assigned reading in some of my classes, but I wouldn’t use the movie in the same way. And, weirdly, what I consider a serious failing of the movie is considered a strength by other reviewers. Here’s Variety, for instance:

The HBO movie about this trio [Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, and Deborah Lacks] makes only one of the women truly memorable, but it’s worth seeing in order to witness Oprah Winfrey give one of the best performances of her career. Winfrey is mesmerizing as Deborah Lacks, whose quest to connect with the history of her mother, who died when she was a baby, forms much of the spine of Skloot’s book. (Henrietta’s cancer cells were unusually hardy, and became the source of the kind of useful cells that labs need in order to perform key biological experiments.)

See that last sentence? That covers in its entirety all of the science in the movie, completely. If you want to learn more about HeLa cells and their history and use in the laboratory, it’s not here. If you want to learn more about Henrietta Lacks, there are a few brief vignettes scattered here and there, but otherwise, it’s not here. If you want to learn more about the ethics (or lack thereof) of biomedical research, it’s alluded to, but otherwise, it’s not here. This is all about Oprah and her Emmy-deserving performance.

It’s not just me. Vulture, USA Today, The Ringer, LA Times, Time, and basically everyone who has reviewed it, says the same thing: Oprah was excellent, and she stole the show. I agree. But I think that’s a shame.

If you want to see a movie with some fine acting, with an impressive character study, with a singular character who sucks all the air out of the room when she’s on screen (which she is, most of the time), then The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on HBO is the show for you, enjoy it for what it is. If you want a richer, more complicated story of the intersection between science and culture and how it affects one larger family, then read the book…which, I notice, is out in a new edition with a new cover that replaces the photograph of Henrietta Lacks with a close-up of Oprah, and that’s a perfect metaphor for the movie.

#ObscenelyOptimistic

Jeremy Messersmith is giving away a free songbook of Obscenely Optimistic songs. I don’t know if we should be encouraging this sort of thing:

It’s jam-packed with ridiculous songs about kittens, world peace, flying cars and the transformative power of love. Why? Because we all need a ray of sunshine every now and again. Because it’s important to not lose sight of how good things could be. Because the first step to a better world is to imagine a better world.

He’s not kidding. Look at the song list:

Everybody Gets A Kitten
There Is Nowhere We Won’t Go
We All Do Better When We All Do Better
Love Sweet Love
Why
Everything Is Magical
Honeybee
I’m A Snowflake, Baby
You Belong Up There With The Stars
We Can Make Our Dreams Come True

I tried sneering and fixing the lyrics to better reflect my attitude — “Everybody Gets a Vicious, Bloody-Minded, Bird-Slaughtering Predator”, for instance — but then found that they don’t scan anymore, and they don’t fit the notes, either, so I guess we’re stuck with the cheery words he’s giving them. I think I was also bitter because I looked at his tour route, and noticed he wasn’t coming anywhere near western Minnesota.

messersmithtour

Then I realized he couldn’t, because his route makes a perfect heart shape*, and he couldn’t visit Morris without wrecking the pattern, so I’ll forgive him.

Get a copy and print it out, and attend his concerts — they’re going to be singalongs, accompanied by ukulele. Presumably without the accompaniment of Vicious, Bloody-Minded, Bird-Slaughtering Predators, but you never know.

*Before you all peevishly tell me that that doesn’t look like your heart**, note that I didn’t say what species. That pointy triangular shape looks exactly like the heart of a salmon, which are better than people anyway.

**Any salmon writing in will not be making that complaint. I appreciate your support. Don’t ask how I know the shape of your heart.

Great British TV

This admission is going to cost me readers, but you know I don’t shy away from controversy. Here is the terrible truth: I am not a fan of Dr Who. It’s OK, I don’t instantly turn it off if an episode comes on, but I don’t trouble myself to keep up with the series.

But that could change. I stumbled across this phenomenal episode that I’m going to share with you all.

What season was Rowan Atkinson the Doctor? I could watch more of that.