There is no doubt that the story of Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini is fascinating, and absolutely worthy of being remembered and told. I do wish it had been told more compellingly than in CABRINI, as by-the-book as a historical biography could be.
Cabrini was a nun, running an orphanage in Lombard, Italy near the end of the 19th century. But she aspired to lead a mission in China, with the goal of bringing hospitals, schools and (of course) Catholicism to those people, and then spreading her mission from there. Pope Leo XIII had different ideas and sent her to the US (NYC in particular) to help downtrodden Italian immigrants there. Cabrini and a handful of sisters travelled there, and managed to establish a truly impressive mission that eventually spread throughout the world. The movie primarily hones in on the time when Cabrini arrives in America and overcame the rather daunting obstacles that faced her in establishing a school/orphanage and then a hospital. The rest of her life is only summarized briefly in text before the closing credits. She faces predictable obstacles: no one wants to spend resources on those awful Italians. The mayor is utterly unsympathetic and the local archbishop, while clearly feeling the pull of the feelings that my first have drawn him to the priesthood, is still guided by his desire to keep his church prosperous by maintaining his relationships with local officials. But our title character uses determination, smarts and some well-placed deceptions to "do what is right." In particular, she gets the press on her side.
It's all interesting stuff, and certainly it's easy to feel outrage at the treatment of the immigrants living in squalor in Five Points. But the archbishop (David Morse) and mayor (John Lithgow), among others, are such cardboard villains, the movie just becomes less and less subtle. (And to a large degree, the good guys are pretty cardboard too...the prostitute with the heart of gold, the children who admire Mother Cabrini so much, the kindly doctor, etc. Etc.). Most nuance is missing here.
Thank goodness, though, for the subtle performance of Cristiana Dell'Anna in the title role. I've never heard of this Italian actress. She's a fairly mesmerizing presence. Cabrini dealt with serious health issues and thus was slight and a bit frail. Yet she had a will of steel, driven by her faith and her own ambition. Dell'Anna conveys all of this with seemingly little effort; she really inhabits this role and her performance elevates this otherwise pedestrian film.
And thank goodness she is so good. This IS a story worth telling (and one I didn't know at all); Dell'Anna makes it worthwhile. So while I wish more elements were handled with more finesse (and I wish the CGI was not so bargain-basement), I can still comfortably recommend the film.
Cabrini was a nun, running an orphanage in Lombard, Italy near the end of the 19th century. But she aspired to lead a mission in China, with the goal of bringing hospitals, schools and (of course) Catholicism to those people, and then spreading her mission from there. Pope Leo XIII had different ideas and sent her to the US (NYC in particular) to help downtrodden Italian immigrants there. Cabrini and a handful of sisters travelled there, and managed to establish a truly impressive mission that eventually spread throughout the world. The movie primarily hones in on the time when Cabrini arrives in America and overcame the rather daunting obstacles that faced her in establishing a school/orphanage and then a hospital. The rest of her life is only summarized briefly in text before the closing credits. She faces predictable obstacles: no one wants to spend resources on those awful Italians. The mayor is utterly unsympathetic and the local archbishop, while clearly feeling the pull of the feelings that my first have drawn him to the priesthood, is still guided by his desire to keep his church prosperous by maintaining his relationships with local officials. But our title character uses determination, smarts and some well-placed deceptions to "do what is right." In particular, she gets the press on her side.
It's all interesting stuff, and certainly it's easy to feel outrage at the treatment of the immigrants living in squalor in Five Points. But the archbishop (David Morse) and mayor (John Lithgow), among others, are such cardboard villains, the movie just becomes less and less subtle. (And to a large degree, the good guys are pretty cardboard too...the prostitute with the heart of gold, the children who admire Mother Cabrini so much, the kindly doctor, etc. Etc.). Most nuance is missing here.
Thank goodness, though, for the subtle performance of Cristiana Dell'Anna in the title role. I've never heard of this Italian actress. She's a fairly mesmerizing presence. Cabrini dealt with serious health issues and thus was slight and a bit frail. Yet she had a will of steel, driven by her faith and her own ambition. Dell'Anna conveys all of this with seemingly little effort; she really inhabits this role and her performance elevates this otherwise pedestrian film.
And thank goodness she is so good. This IS a story worth telling (and one I didn't know at all); Dell'Anna makes it worthwhile. So while I wish more elements were handled with more finesse (and I wish the CGI was not so bargain-basement), I can still comfortably recommend the film.