Cabrini – you’ll be hard pressed not to find yourself rushing out to do some good deed
Director: Alejandro Monteverde
Cast: Cristiana Dell’Anna, Romana M. Vergano, David Morse, John Lithgow, Frederico Ielapi, Giancarlo Giannini, Virginia Bocelli
Running time: 139 mins
Directed by Alejandro Monteverde, who also co-wrote the script, this inspiring and engaging biopic tells the story of Francesca Cabrini, the first US citizen to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic church. Given Cabrini’s remarkable achievements, it’s curious that her name is relatively unknown today, and with any luck, this film will redress that balance.
The film begins with a short prologue that illustrates just how bad things are for Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century, as young Paolo’s (Frederico Ielapi) mother is taken seriously ill, and he receives no assistance from hospitals or the police, as he frantically pushes her around New York in a wheelbarrow, pleading for help. When his mother dies, he’s taken in by Enzo (Liam Campora), the leader of a street gang.
The story then switches to Rome in 1887, where ailing nun Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell’Anna) seeks an audience with the Pope (Giancarlo Giannini) and persuades him to let her open a chain of orphanages. However, he insists that she travel west to New York, to help the Italian immigrants, rather than east to China, as she had originally planned.
When Cabrini arrives in New York, accompanied by seven other sisters, she finds conditions for Italians in the Five Points district worse than she could possibly have imagined – “Even the rats have it better”, she remarks. To make matters worse, she constantly encounters resistance and prejudice from those in power, most notably Mayor Gould (John Lithgow), though she finds an ally in kindly Archbishop Corrigan (David Morse).
It would have been easy to portray Cabrini as a full-on force of nature, a veritable whirlwind of passion and outrage, but Dell’Anna instead paints her as a woman of quiet determination, perpetually resourceful, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and tragedy. The inspirational effect is nigh on infectious – indeed, you’ll be hard pressed not to find yourself rushing out to do some good deed or other after watching the film.
The supporting performances are equally good, particularly Morse, whose attitude to Cabrini falls somewhere between admiration and exasperation, and Romana M. Vergano as Vittoria, a sex worker who becomes both a friend and colleague to Cabrini, in defiance of her vicious pimp. Similarly, Giannini is splendidly cast as the Pope (you can tell he’s enjoying himself) and Lithgow is so good as Mayor Gould that you forget he’s only in two scenes. On top of that, young Frederico Ielapi makes a strong impression as Paolo, sparking a touching rapport with both Campora and Dell’Anna.
The production design is excellent throughout (if perhaps a little less filthy than the script would have you believe), and the film is strikingly shot, courtesy of cinematographer Gorka Gomez Andreu, who gives the whole thing a golden sheen that recalls Once Upon a Time in America.
The script, co-written with Rod Barr, does a good job of illustrating Cabrini’s impressive resourcefulness, and the way she’d often find loopholes in the restrictions she was given. For example, when told not to solicit money from anyone, she instead goes to the papers with her story and is then deluged with donations from kind-hearted citizens.
However, it’s fair to say that the story drags a little over the course of its two hour and twenty minute running time, and does occasionally feel a little repetitive. Still, by the time the closing narration reels off the list of Cabrini’s ultimate achievements (including the establishment of multiple hospitals and orphanages across the world), you’d have to have a heart of stone to begrudge the film a few more minutes.
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