Biopic that’s nun too subtle, but nun too shabby either
Review
Cabrini
(M, 145 mins)
Directed by Alejandro Monteverde Reviewed by
****
Maria Frances Cabrini was born in Lombardy in 1850, in an area which is today in northern Italy, but which was then part of
Director Alejandro Monteverde (Sound of Freedom) does a fine job at getting the broad strokes of Cabrini's life on to the screen in a way that keeps the story easy to follow and doesn't allow for much confusion as to who the good guys and the villains might be.
Monteverde isn't the most subtle director around, but he knows how to move a camera and mostly keeps the story heading forwards. At nearly two-and-a-half hours, Cabrini isn't a brisk film, but there usually seems to be enough happening in the script to justify the running time.
Although Cabrini is unashamedly a religious film, there is still plenty here to keep any curious heathens in the audience happy and interested.
In the title role, Cristiana Dell'Anna (Gomorrah) is feisty and winsomely implacable, facing down pimps and archbishops as though they are all pretty much the same to her. David Morse (The Chair) and John Lithgow are as effective as you would expect in a couple of solid cameos.
The story of Maria Cabrini – in this telling – is a classic yarn of a migrant who will not be denied a place in their chosen new home. This might be a story of a devoutly religious woman, but it is also a terrific fable of entrepreneurship and industry.
Cabrini is a handsomely staged thrash at taking a remarkable life and fashioning a watchable film from it. It is also a fairly rare cinematic outing in the last few decades in which the Catholic Church
– and particularly the people who run their schools and orphanages – actually look like the good guys. Take that as a recommendation if you wish.