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Cabrini Movie Review

Cabrini is a 2024 biographical drama film directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and starring Cristina Dell’Anna in the main role. It’s a flawed, but respectable biopic.

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“We can serve our weakness

or we can serve our purpose.

Not both“

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After witnessing disease and poverty in the slums of New York, Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini embarks on a daring journey to persuade the hostile mayor to provide housing and healthcare for hundreds of orphaned children. Made by the “infamous” conservative company Angel Studios, this movie is much better than their last effort ‘Sound of Freedom’. Cabrini is actually well made on all counts and genuinely effective in its story.

Francesca Cabrini was rightfully canonized as a saint. She did so many important and wonderful things for the Italian-American community in the US that this movie will hopefully bring her name to a wider audience. It was very clever of Angel Studios to make a film that is conservative only in its focus on a nun, but in essence it’s a very liberal movie that is all about the horrors of sexism and anti-immigration tendencies that ripped across the country back in the late 19^th century.

And it does deal with those themes mostly successfully. I say mostly because some of the dialogue is admittedly very preachy. I grew tired of the protagonist making claims that Italians should have the same rights as others and that she as a woman can do great deeds just as much as any man. The film was in danger of becoming repetitive in the same sequence circled back and back again, which is her fighting with people who don’t want her to change things for the better.

But Cabrini was elevated by excellent acting from Cristina Dell’Anna. Her stern facial expressions coupled with convicted speaking made her a powerful figure. She wasn’t developed all too well, but the actress transcended the role with her great work. Others serve their purpose, but this is Cabrini’s movie first and foremost.

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The technical aspects are also worthy of praise. The score is loud, yes, but undeniably effective in its sweeping, orchestral and spiritual emotional beats. The cinematography is also very strong and capturing both the protagonist’s actions and the city at large very effectively. The directing is just okay, but the movie’s fine audio-visuals, a moving story and great acting managed to make up for some preachiness and an overextended runtime.