Cabrini (film)

2024 American film by Alejandro Gómez

Cabrini

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Alejandro Monteverde
Screenplay by| Rod Barr
Story by|

* Alejandro Monteverde
* Rod Barr

Produced by|

* J. Eustace Wolfington
* Jonathan Sanger
* Leo Severino

Starring|

* Cristiana Dell'Anna
* David Morse
* Romana Maggiora Vergano
* Federico Ielapi
* Virginia Bocelli
* Rolando Villazón
* Giancarlo Giannini
* John Lithgow

Cinematography| Gorka Gómez Andreu
Edited by| F. Brian Scofield
Music by| Gene Back

Production
companies

* Francesca Film Production NY
* Lupin Film
* Lodigiano Film Development Inc.

Distributed by| Angel Studios

Release date

* March 8, 2024 (2024-03-08)

Running time

| 142 minutes[1]
Country| United States
Languages|

* English
* Italian

Budget| $50 million[2]
Box office| $20.6 million[3][4]

Cabrini is a 2024 American biographical drama film directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde and written by Rod Barr, based on a story by both. The film depicts the life of Catholic missionary Francesca Cabrini, portrayed by Cristiana Dell'Anna, as she encounters resistance to her charity and business efforts in New York City. Cabrini explores the sexism and anti-Italian bigotry faced by Cabrini and others in New York City in the late 19th century.[5]

Cabrini was released in the United States on March 8, 2024, by Angel Studios. The film received mostly positive reviews, but became a box-office bomb, grossing $20.6 million worldwide on a $50 million budget.

## Plot

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In 1889 New York City, an Italian immigrant boy named Paolo pushes around his dying mother in a cart; when he goes into a hospital for help, speaking only Italian, the personnel cruelly dismiss him. An older boy, Enzo, welcomes Paolo into relative shelter in the sewers.

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, a nun with tuberculosis, visits the Vatican after multiple attempts to found her own missionary order. As a girl, she made paper boats by a river, imagining them sailing off on missions to other countries; she often has visions of her past riverside experiences. A cardinal rejects her proposal, but she insists on seeing the Pope, Leo XIII. She tells the Pope she wants to help the poor and build an orphanage in China, and that the world is not large enough for what she wants to do. He notes that no woman has been allowed to found such an order, but allows her to do so, albeit recommending she should go to New York instead since she will eventually cover the whole world anyway.

Cabrini migrates from Italy to New York with her fellow Sisters to take care of poor Italian immigrants, aiding an ineffective priest in the Five Points area. On her first night there, she has nowhere to stay but a brothel, let in by a sympathetic prostitute named Vittoria who tells her to bar her room's door. Cabrini and comrades hear pounding on the door, and the voice of a pimp named Geno shouting that he doesn't allow roomers for free and that they must not sleep there again.

Archbishop Corrigan is not helpful, but when Cabrini shows him her letter from the Pope, he grudgingly allows her work to continue. Her Sisters successfully establish charity and hospital work and take care of many children. Cabrini occasionally ventures underground at night to find missing children, at the expense of her deteriorating health; some good Samaritans convey her to a physician, Dr. Murphy, who tells her she likely has only two years to live. Murphy starts helping her order. Paolo and Enzo, considering a future in the mafia, try to steal bread from Cabrini, but she invites them to dinner with the Sisters instead. When Geno tries to take back Vittoria, who has left the brothel to help the Sisters, Paolo takes out a gun and shoots Geno, crippling him. Later, Cabrini convinces Paolo to take the gun, which his father had used to commit suicide, and destroy it. Geno and a henchman later ambush Vittoria and try to kill her, but she stabs Geno to death in self defense.

Cabrini purchases an Upper West Side property as a children's home. The mayor is hostile to Italians, and attempts to drive her out of the property; a city inspector evicts Cabrini and her group. However, Corrigan finds a formerly Jesuit-owned property and lets the Sisters have it, though they must dig water wells there, which Cabrini does personally. Enzo and Paolo go to work to earn money and help Cabrini, but a pump station accident kills Enzo and others. Murphy tells Cabrini a hospital more equipped than hers would have saved many lives. She determines to establish a first-rate hospital, and buys an old building, with the aid of wealthy men from immigrant communities of Irish, Italian, and Polish descent.

Cabrini worked to get support from Italian immigrants. In the film, she asked the famous singer Enrico DiSalvo to sing at a fundraiser, but he refused. She then brought a choir of Italian immigrants who sing under his window. Virginia Bocelli sings Va, pensiero, a chorus based on Psalm 137, sung by exiled Jews pining for their homeland, from Verdi's opera Nabucco.[6] Touched by the song, he agrees to sing.

When Cabrini holds an Italian-American festival fundraiser with famous singer Enrico DiSalvo, the police, spewing racial slurs, shut it down, and Cabrini is arrested. Corrigan orders Cabrini back to Italy. Visiting there with Vittoria and another nun, she gets the Pope to overrule Corrigan, although the Pope wonders about the tension between Cabrini's faith and her ambition; she states she wants an "empire of hope". She also gets the Italian Senate to appropriate money to finish building the hospital, but violent ruffians set it on fire. Cabrini confronts the mayor, insinuating that he may be responsible for the arson. With the help of a New York Times reporter, who had previously helped her with a sympathetic story about the unlivable conditions in Five Points, she gets the mayor to relent in his opposition to the hospital's construction.

Despite her lung condition, Cabrini endures to the age of 67 and becomes hugely celebrated. Later, she is canonized, making her the first American saint (the patron saint of immigrants), with her order spread over all the world, including China.

## Cast

[edit]

* Cristiana Dell'Anna as Francesca Cabrini
* David Morse as Archbishop Corrigan
* Romana Maggiora Vergano as Vittoria
* Federico Ielapi as Paolo
* Virginia Bocelli as Aria
* Rolando Villazón as DiSalvo
* Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII
* John Lithgow as Mayor Gould
* Federico Castelluccio as Senator Bodio[7]
* Patch Darragh[8] as Dr. Murphy
* Jeremy Bobb as New York Times reporter Theodore Calloway
* Eugenia Forteza as Sister Umilia

## Production

[edit]

The film was executive produced by J. Eustace Wolfington, a Philadelphia Main Line businessman, entrepreneur and Catholic philanthropist. He also produced the film Bella in 2006.[9] Principal photography began in western New York in mid-2021 with locations in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Production moved to Rome later that year.[10]

## Release

[edit]

Cabrini was released in the United States by Angel Studios on March 8, 2024.[11] The film was screened privately for the community of Cabrini University at its Alumni Weekend on September 24, 2023.[12] It was released in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2024.[1]

## Reception

[edit]

### Box office

[edit]

As of June 30, 2024, Cabrini has grossed $19.5 million in United States and Canada and $1.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $20.6 million.

In the United States and Canada, Cabrini was released alongside Kung Fu Panda 4 and Imaginary, set for a projected gross of about $8.5 million from 2,840 theaters in its opening weekend.[13] The film made $3.1 million on its first day, including $500,000 from Thursday night preview, ultimately reaching $7.2 million in its first weekend.[14][15]

### Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 90 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Aided by Cristiana Dell'Anna's performance in the title role, Cabrini is an uplifting biopic with a timeless message."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 94% overall positive score.[14]

RogerEbert.com's Tomris Laffly, rating the film 3 out of 4 stars, praised it as "the kind of middlebrow, big-screen period piece that used to occupy our theater screens regularly just a few decades ago". She concluded "If the name Alejandro Monteverde is familiar to your ears, it's likely because of last year's absurd and highly controversial box office hit Sound of Freedom. Thankfully, Cabrini doesn't arrive with a controversy to its name... [It] is in no way a perfect movie, but a damn dignified one that honors the little-known efforts of these fearless women."[18] Richard Roeper, writing from the Chicago Sun-Times, similarly stated "The biopic Cabrini is a beautiful reminder of the human being behind the name... The Italian actress Cristiana Dell'Anna turns in a stunningly effective, movie-star performance in a film that is reminiscent of old-fashioned religious biopics such as The Song of Bernadette and Joan of Arc."[19]

Conversely, IndieWire's David Ehrlich rated Cabrini a C-, criticizing it as "A stodgy, histrionic, and impossibly dull biopic that drags on for more than 140 minutes despite being thinner than a stained glass window." He went on to say "Its dialogue is a stale mess of empty slogans in search of a character to support them, its cinematography smothers turn of the century New York under a mustard cloud of digital sepia, and its structure — credited to both Monteverde and screenwriter Rod Barr — is so absent a convincing shape that it might as well be a person with three arms or a t‍-‍shirt that only has sleeves."[20] Variety's Carlos Aguilar was also negative, writing "[For] all that can be questioned about the makers' intentions, the movie's greatest sin is how lifelessly solemn and aesthetically dull it is. Equidistant from the shock-value slop of the God's Not Dead franchise and from anything remotely considered interesting filmmaking, Cabrini lies in a middle ground of mediocrity."[8]

### Awards

[edit]

Cabrini won the Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Movie at the 2025 Movieguide Awards.[21] It received a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 29th Satellite Awards.[22]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Cabrini (12A)". BBFC. February 27, 2024. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
2. ^ DiStefano, Joseph N. (February 29, 2024). "A Main Line patriarch raised $50 million to make Cabrini, the new movie about a relentless Italian American nun". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
3. ^ "Cabrini— Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
4. ^ "Cabrini". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on March 20, 2024. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
5. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 5, 2023). "'Sound Of Freedom' Director Alejandro Monteverde Sets 'Cabrini' With Angel Studios For Spring Release". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
6. ^ "Verdi's Nabucco: By the Rivers of Babylon | Aria Code | WNYC Studios". Archived from the original on June 29, 2025. Retrieved June 29, 2025.
7. ^ Foust, Michael (September 7, 2023). "Sound of Freedom Director Announces New Movie, Cabrini: It's an 'Unbelievable Story'". Christian Headlines. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
8. ^ a b Aguilar, Carlos (March 7, 2024). "'Cabrini' Review: Lifeless Religious Drama Chronicles Hardships Faced by Determined Italian Nun Who Fought for Immigrants". Variety. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
9. ^ Mammarella, Ken (March 14, 2024). "'Cabrini' film strikes chord with producer". Italian American Herald. Archived from the original on March 24, 2024. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
10. ^ "FILMED IN WNY: "Cabrini" – See the trailer now". Buffalo Niagara Film Office. July 5, 2023. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
11. ^ Darby, Margeret (September 6, 2023). "'Sound of Freedom' director Alejandro Monteverde will release 'Cabrini' in 2024". Deseret News. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
12. ^ "Graduates Return for a Spirited Alumni Weekend". Cabrini University. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
13. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 7, 2024). "'Kung Fu Panda 4' To Soar At Weekend Box Office With $50M+; 'Dune: Part Two' Crossing $100M Today – Preview". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 9, 2024. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
14. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 11, 2024). "How Universal Revived DreamWorks Animation's 'Kung Fu Panda 4' To $58M Opening – Monday Box Office Update". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
15. ^ "Domestic 2024 Weekend 10". Box Office Mojo.
16. ^ "Cabrini". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
17. ^ "Cabrini". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
18. ^ Laffly, Tomris (March 5, 2024). "Cabrini". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on March 7, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
19. ^ Roeper, Richard (March 6, 2024). "'Cabrini': Sweeping biopic depicts the altruistic nun who would later be a saint". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
20. ^ Ehrlich, David (March 5, 2024). "'Cabrini' Review: The Director of 'Sound of Freedom' Returns with an Unbelievably Dull Biopic About the First American Saint". IndieWire. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
21. ^ Foust, Michael (March 6, 2025). "Candace Cameron Bure Celebrates 'God's Grace and Love' after MovieGuide Award Win". Crosswalk.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2025. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
22. ^ Anderson, Erik (December 16, 2024). "2024 International Press Academy Satellite Awards Nominations: 'The Brutalist', 'Shōgun' Lead". AwardsWatch. Archived from the original on December 22, 2024. Retrieved March 9, 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Cabrini at IMDb
* Cabrini at Metacritic
* Cabrini at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde

* Bella (2006)
* Little Boy (2015)
* Sound of Freedom (2023)
* Cabrini (2024)
* Zero A. D. (2025)

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* t
* e

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Current|

| Original|

* Dry Bar Comedy (since 2017)
* The Chosen (since 2017)
* Tuttle Twins (since 2021)
* The Wingfeather Saga (since 2022)
* Playing for Eternity (since 2023)
* Lightwise (since 2023)
* Gabriel and the Guardians (since 2025)

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Continuations|

* Freelancers (since 2021)

Ended|

* Young David (2023–2024)

Upcoming|

* The Axiom Chronicles (TBA)
* Testament (TBA)
* Dry Bar Unscripted (TBA)
* The German King (TBA)

Films|

| Released|

* Testament: The Parables Retold (2022)
* His Only Son (2023)
* Sound of Freedom (2023)
* After Death (2023)
* The Shift (2023)
* Cabrini (2024)
* Sight (2024)
* Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
* Bonhoeffer (2024)
* Homestead (2024)
* Brave the Dark (2025)
* Rule Breakers (2025)
* The King of Kings (2025)

|

Upcoming|

* The Last Rodeo (2025)
* Sketch (2025)
* Truth & Treason (2025)
* David (2025)
* Zero A. D. (2025)
* Solo Mio (2026)
* The Telegram (TBA)
* Jacob (TBA)

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