Cabrini

The critics are right on this one. This was not a faith film. It was a biopic made to appeal to everyone.
It was basically “She Persisted: The Movie.”

She was definitely a strong and smart woman. There was a bit of Tombstone/Don Holiday in her, as she had post-TB symptoms and some kind of lung issue, but she lasted longer than the doctors predicted. The critics of this movie are annoyed with the lack of praying and the lack of pleading for a miracle on her part.
Alan said this was a period piece and that is important to keep in mind, because she is the Patron Saint of Immigrants, but the situation was much different back then. This was in about 1895, so they did not have electricity yet in most parts. It was still in the time of horse and carriage. The movie was shot incredibly well, so be on the lookout for Alejandro Monteverde. He had some amazing shots under water and there was an element of Opera and Rome in the movie.

Andrea Bocelli’s daughter sings in the choir in one scene.

I agree with the 3 star rating.

The movie kept referring to her as “ambitious” and she said in the movie that she wanted to build an “Empire of Hope” consisting of orphanages, hospitals, and schools. The movie emphasizes the appraisal of the real estate properties that she started to acquire. She was so successful at one orphanage, that they threw a hospital at her to save that was going bankrupt because she was so effective. Will say that the nuns impressed me so much.
In the film, the other nuns were basically NPCs, but to have such a large staff of women faithfully devoted to serving, it shows the power of having a team and crew of women like that. They are such good teachers and nurses and instructors. I actually know a very high powered female executive who was raised in one of these orphanages in Greece, who went from total poverty to a top globalist construction firm that builds infrastructure all over the world.

Cristiana Dell’Anna, who played the lead role, is new to me and the performance was completely solid with the exception of one crying scene, her performance was perfect. Again, Director Alejandro has chops and a lot of the scenes look like paintings right out of a chapel. John Lithgow and David Morse delivered. Film Threat did an interview with producer Jonathan Sanger, who was very lucid still, and worked on Elephant Man in the past and had a very good working relationship with Mel Brooks.

I am grateful to Angel Studios for this movie, but it did come off as feminist and made her out to be an ambitious entrepreneur and, at the end, we find out that her global holdings put her up there with the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers. That statement kind of diminished her in my opinion because I thought what is wrong with hospitals, orphanages and schools? It makes it seem like she had had ulterior motives and I don’t think so, but one other point the movie made was that she had her own order that was made up entirely of women. What they accomplished together is really impressive.