Movie Review: ‘Cabrini’

The child, Francesca Cabrini, sits by a river making paper boats. When they’re finished, she places flowers in the bow and drops them onto the water to drift with the current to missions in distant places. The woman, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (Cristina Dell’Anna), still has desires to reach out to the world, although now in a different way. She wants to help the poor and build an orphanage in China. She first needs approval from the church. The superior at her church in rural Italy says she must first seek approval from the Vatican. Cabrini leaves for Rome.

The cardinal she speaks with at the Vatican scoffs at her ideas of helping the poor throughout the world and quickly dismisses her. She demands an audience with the Pope. Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) reluctantly relents to her demand and grants her a brief audience. He states that no woman has ever proposed such an idea nor founded such an order. In the end, he gives her permission to follow her dream, but only in New York and not China. “There are many Italian immigrants existing there in need of help,” he says. She and five Sisters board a ship crossing the Atlantic to New York.

They were told they would be met at the docks and escorted to their living quarters. That didn’t happen. No one greeted them so they drag their belongings to the Five Points area of lower Manhattan – their new home. On the way they pass starving, ragged, filthy Italian immigrants living on the streets or in hovels. The six need a place to stay the night before meeting with their supervising priest the next day. Cabrini approaches a woman standing on a corner. The woman offers no help and turns away. The prostitute changes her mind and offers the nuns a place to stay for the night – a small cluttered room in a brothel.

The guiding light of the church in 5 Points, Archbishop Corrigan (David Morse), reluctantly receives Cabrini and shows little interest in her proposed hospital/orphanage. It’s only when he reads the letter from the Pope that he acquiesces and allows them to remain in New York. The Sisters eventually find an abandoned wreck of a building for their orphanage, and begin cleaning. Their efforts are rewarded. They establish a charity and hospital and care for the many orphaned children – taking them off the streets. Soon outgrowing their humble abode, Cabrini begins looking for a larger facility.

She purchases an Upper West Side property and moves her ever increasing number of children in. Their new home comes to the attention of Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) who is adamantly opposed to their presence in the prestigious neighborhood. He sends city inspectors to their site to find many “violations” and levy a huge fine. Corrigan has since become her supporter and finds an alternative – a sprawling Jesuit-owned property. He arranges for her to take possession. Needing money to rehabilitate the property, she holds an Italian-American festival fundraiser. The event is a great success, that is, until Gould sends his police in to shut it down and arrest Cabrini. Corrigan has no choice but to order her to return to Italy.

Directed by Alejandro Monteverdi (Credits: Sound of Freedom, Little Boy) “Cabrini” runs 142 minutes and is a “should see” for an inspiring story of courage and determination. Based on true events taking place in the late 1800s.