User Reviews

I'm not religious in any way shape or form, but I really liked this movie.

The sets and the acting were all top notch...watching this made me wonder how Hollywood movies are so expensive, because this looked better than alot of 100 million dollar + movies that I have seen.

It's a great story about someone who simply wants to help other by any means. She's a bulldog and does what she needs to in order to get the job done.

The entire story has religious undertones but it is very much not in your face. She doesn't perform any miracles or anything like that, she just works hard for those she cares about.

Excellent movie from people of all backgrounds.

An incredible and inspirational true story of a truly amazing woman! This movie will impact lives. If you're looking for some inspiration on how to make a positive difference in this world, go see this movie.

Cabrini is very well done with superb acting and every detail attended to to put you right there with Cabrini on her journey. You feel the struggle and you rejoice in her triumphs.

I don't know how much the world knew about Cabrini before this movie, but I believe that the more that see it, the more will be inspired to do a little more and try a little harder to lift the burdens of our fellow men, women and children. She had a heart that was too great to be stopped!

Ok, I randomly stumbled on this movie and the ticket. So I just decided to go and watch it one Thursday night. I should also start this by saying that I do not care for religious films but I'm always a fan of a good female hero. THIS STORY WAS SO GREAT. And the quality of actors and backgrounds ... thank god. I could not sit through 2 hours of cheesy Hallmark style movie. Thank you to who ever funded this! I walked away feeling so inspired and in love with Cabrini and I adored seeing NYC as it once was. I appreciated that God was silently in the film. I recommend! It was an era & hero film that anyone would wnjoy.

Mother Cabrini is a legend and I'm shocked that I had never heard her story before! This movie tells of her struggles and triumphs in such a beautiful, inspiring, and compelling way!

After watching I not only wanted to research more about what she did in her life, but also the area of Five Points in New York City. Historically I felt enriched, but also I felt an overwhelming empathy for my fellow man and the struggles people are going through. Cabrini helped orphans and immigrants with nothing more than faith, believing the resources would come. I felt so uplifted and inspired to do more, no matter how much I can offer, it is enough!

Total girl power with faith in God. Perfect pairing!

Although I avoid religious films that have a holy message to relay, I have become a cheerleader for Angel Studios because of the two films I have seen, the box-office-wonder Sound of Freedom and now the beautiful and engaging biopic, Cabrini. They have a production richness not only exemplified in the realistic and lush cinematography (shout out to Cabrini lenser Gorka Gomez Andreu), but also believable heroes such as the human trafficker hounds in the former and the canonized Mother Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna) in the latter. Both films have the same director, Alejandro Monteverde.

The realism and the goodness of the characters helps make the two films memorable for putting us directly in the action (in Cabrini 1899 New York City) and only subtly sanctifying the heroes. The elements of first-rate filming are in Cabrini: original music by Gene Back that captures spirituality while exalting humanity, Alisha Silverstein's spot-on period costumes, and an equally-impressive Carlos-Lagunas production design. Over them all is a lean and effective story by Monteverde and Rod Barr aided immensely by the creative editing of Brian Scofield.

As always, the acting makes the difference: Besides Dell'Anna's award-worthy interpretation of the diminutive "entrepreneur," David Morse's archbishop is imperious and difficult, matched growl for growl by John Lithgow's intractable mayor. Senior to them is the impressive Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII, who assigns the NYC slums to Cabrini's future as the eventual patron saint of immigrants.

Mother Cabrini, despite her failing health and being a woman in a paternalistic society, is a superlative example of the feminist Gloria Steinem could imagine: kind and ambitious, tough and savvy, in love with children who need her love. It would be next to impossible not to shed a tear watching her build an orphanage and then hospitals in the spirit of her selfless mission to help the disadvantaged.

But then that is what this film does as it portrays the uncomfortable world of early 20th-century poverty while encouraging us to clap for the heroism of Cabrini and her soldiers, including a Mary-Magdalene-type prostitute, Vittoria ( Romana Maggiora Vergano). The comparison to Christ's journey is never emphasized, all the better to realize the everyday heroism of our fellow humans.

I am impressed once again by the ability of director Monteverde and the Angel Studios to craft a biopic that reeks of reality while it spiritually transports to the worlds of authentic heroes. Cabrini is, like the current Oppenheimer, a true, albeit "inspired by," biopic with heart and grit.

I love true stories of people accomplishing great things, especially when they must overcome the odds against them. This was the case in the movie "Cabrini," an inspiring, motivating, suspenseful movie about a real woman and the good she accomplished through determination, persistence, and faith. It made me feel like I should be doing more with my life, but in a good way, not a way that made me feel small. We need to focus more on people who have overcome much in order to improve the lives of others and find happiness and satisfaction doing so. We need more movies like this, and fewer movies like the ones often produced.

My husband and I were able to see a sneak preview of this movie not knowing anything about it, not even the title. It is an old style epic you can watch with grandma and will have you whooping at the end (there is a conversation they show half of in the preview that a woman literally cheered at in the audience.) It is a piece of history that I knew very little about. The Italians are the newest immigrants in New York as the Irish immigrants are beginning to gain acceptance. There is modern feel in the way it reminds us that everyone has been the poor immigrant at some point and calls on us to remember that in the way we treat the newcomers or anyone else who is currently on the bottom of the pile. Yet rings modern. Unlike most modern epics today, there was no sense of preaching, just truth telling and a plain good movie. We plan on seeing it again soon with our family.

This movie is SO good!! It follows the life of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, an immigrant from Italy who came to America to do missions work. It's such a compelling story, you watch as she gets horrible racist and sexist remarks made against her, and she still overcomes. She is a strong woman who people should look up to. She opened an orphanage and faced so much adversity all along the way. We need young woman to have someone like this woman to look up to, she was able to take all the ridicule and hate she got and become greater than she ever had the right to become. That's amazing! But what's even more amazing to me is that it's a true story.

Angel Studios is doing something interesting here: they're making non-preachy value based films that are palatable by your average non-religious movie goer & yet they are using a "pay it forward" system of good doers to passionately promote it and literally pay for others to see it. What's more is this film, as well as Sound of Freedom, are extremely well made for the low budget independent movies they are. They're attracting top talent not because of religious guilt (like a Kirk Cameron Left Behind film might or religious dogma stuff God's Still Not Dead), no these actors are doing these roles because I think they see how strong of writing they have. David Morse, a vet actor, plays one of the best roles he's played in years & even a cameo style featured role of John Lithgow (the mayor) lets him seethe and breath slimy life into yet another wonderful villain role. Cristina Dell Anna in the title role is consistently strong & although it probably won't be treated with the same consideration for Oscar awards due to critics predisposition about the studio (supposedly run by Q'anon supporters I think the stories have said), her role and many roles in the film are no worse than Oscar bait roles are in similar movies like Little Women. The filmmaking, the same as Sound of Freedom Director & also the Cinematographer, is once again very beautiful and visually stunning. Even if a few critics are (I think unfairly) rallying against it, like it or not, it's well made inexpensive and efficient cinema... the exact mid-budget made-for-adult serious cinema that used to be the bread & butter of Hollywood. If the studios are unwilling to make it, I'm glad somebody is keeping up the tradition.

The film doesn't have a meta-self aware bone in its structure & that's refreshing. I'm creators race to reinvent the wheel of film theory, we forget these feel good tales until one comes along and reminds us how much we need a nice uplifting, not challenging society, story. The last film that had this kind of a feel, without religious guilt, was The Upside. I predict this might also do pretty well with the feel good crowd & their praise and money matters too!

I read one critic call it bland, but I disagree. I think it's the kind of film that unabashedly appeals to your emotions over intellect, which some today call manipulative, but if done for a non-dogma cause is just called filmmaking. If religious people used films like this more, uplifting & non preachy, non-cliched and about more reality than biblical theory, I think more from outside the flock would see their perspective. It's only when you're sitting in a movie (like I've seen a thousand times) where a cruel and uncaring god seems to be behind every misery in a very present way, when idiots like Kirk Cameron are acting "holier than thou" and spouting off hateful things supposedly in an effort to convert you that the average person rejects it. So often films have no pretense of entertainment and are really stupidly written only for those who are used to religious cliche & redundancy.

Here, by contrast, we have some intelligent writing, a worthwhile true story about somebody extremely interesting and good who led an inspiring life... that's how to bring 'em in. Maybe some might be inspired to go to church more or like me, while I won't be becoming any more religious, still enjoyed seeing a woman who had faith fight for something good and decent... without strings... just like both Angel Studio movies I've seen. Smart play. Well done. Like Sound if Freedom we have a movie about faithful people, but I would go so far as to say this isn't a "faith movie". Just like a movie may have a serial killer in it and not be a horror movie. I think they've found a good middle ground & i'd see a third movie.

Wonderful, wonderful film! The writing, and acting was absolutely Outstanding!

I'm glad I went to see this movie. Thank GOD for this woman, her heart, drive, and courage! It is AMAZING and I am speechless at how far a reach Mother Cabrini has. She truly DID build an empire. I knew nothing about her before this film, although I heard her name years ago from the television show Good Times (Cabrini-Green). That name has stuck with me through the years, why?, I never knew. I know now. Cabrini sticks, she sticks with you. I feel honored to have "met" her.

I applaud the writers and director for creating such a masterpiece! Thank you so, so much for this film! We need more films like this one, and people like you to make them happen.

Thanks for that beautiful ending. It brought on more tears at the theater, and it's bringing on tears now as I think about it.

WELL DONE! To all involved.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Unaware of the story of Mother Cabrini until watching in the theatre last night. Greatly enjoyed the story and production merits as well as solid acting from the cast. Angel Studios seem to thus far invest in worthwhile features that appeal to mass crowds, while avoiding being too preachy or overly sentimental regarding faith. The theatre was only a little full but the front section clapped at the end and folks stuck around to the end, including me, as I greatly enjoyed the end title song featured as well. I watched this as part of my AMC A-List membership but felt compelled to do at least one ticket on the pay it forward solicitation. Great film, well worth the 2.5 hours spent watching.

My Review - Cabrini My Rating 8/10 In Cinemas now I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed Cabrini I was thinking it might be full of Catholic dogma but it's not.

In fact some of the greatest obstacles that Frances Cabrini the first United States citizen to have been canonized a saint by the Catholic Church came from the male dominated church hierarchy from the Cardinals to the Pope.

It's an amazing story of an Italian woman's strength and faith to help orphan children while battling ethnic and gender discrimination .

These hungry Italian orphan children whose parents have died of disease live less of a life than the rats that infest The Five Points a 19th century neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan New York .

They are forced to seek warmth and shelter in the underground steam pipes at night.

Maria Francesca Cabrini and the Italian nuns that have followed her to New York eventually open an orphanage much to the displeasure of New York Mayor Gould played by John Lithgow .

Archbishop Corrigan of New York played by David Morse place obstacles in the nuns way not wanting to anger the Mayor or the affluent citizens that see the Italians as scum or wops as they called them.

The Archbishop eventually helps Cabrini find a home for her charges when she and the orphans are evicted from the fashionable district they rent premises in an effort to keep her quiet.

However as Cabrin's health and strength decline due to a post TB condition she meets more obstacles when attempting to open a desperately needed hospital after a devastating factory explosion kills many immigrant adults and children.

Cabrini is skilfully directed by Mexican director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde who also directed the superb 2023 docu drama Sound of Freedom.

Cristiana Dell'Anna is an Italian actress who I haven't seen before she is wonderful in the role of Sister Cabrini . This is one of those demanding emotional performances that takes a very talented actress to excel in.

Of course there are other impressive supporting performances I mentioned John Lithgow and David Morse another standout is Romana Maggiora Vergano who plays Vittoria a young prostitute Cabrini brings into her fold who turns out to be her greatest supporter when the nun is at her lowest ebb.

I can recommend Cabrini it tells a little known inspirational story of a woman who despite chronic ill health and broken English uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.

I did think the film score was a bit over the top and over sentimental at times written by Gene Back there were moments which reminded me of Wagner's orchestral fantasies but it's effective and doesn't intrude on the movie.

There's a treat for opera fans also in Cabrini with Rolando Villazón cast as a famous opera singer in Cabrini's orbit plus a brand new song titled Dare to Be from Andrea Bocelli, sung with his daughter Virginia.

Amazingly the real Frances Xavier Cabrini lived till she was 67 years old despite being told she had 3 years to live in her late thirties she was canonised as a Saint in the Catholic church in July 1946 becoming the first American citizen to be proclaimed a Saint.

Cabrini is fine in the sense that it tells a great story from the point of view of a social worker but disregards the catholic spirituality that made her a saint. Cabrini started her orphanages, schools, and hospitals becaise she had a profound love and relationship with God, who illuminated her to follow the gospel that is the life of Jesus Christ. Without her profound life of prayer which is comtemplation in the reason why we are born and why God created us Cabrini would of done nothing. The movie lacks telling the audience what motivated her actions, which were born from her love to God and that love which made her enter the religious life, moved her to love humanity. The movie ignores what made her a saint. Which is not her great works on earth, but her great love of the Holy Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. One God in three different persons. For anybody to become a saint one must have a mystjcal love with God and then the social works become the fruit of such love. This movie fails to inform the inception of why a saint becomes a saint, which is the love and unity with God that leads to a pure life of such a person. It was the grace which God bestowed upon Frances Xavier Cabrini which made her do everything great she did and the movie should of focused alot more on the catholic spirituality that was everything to Cabrini's essence.

Mother Cabrini was a Catholic saint. Probably to ensure commercial success they had to leave out the very essence of her devotion and motivation -Our Lord and God. There was too much missing in this film..God for one, and the fact that she taught catechism. She likely baptized, she must have worked with priests who administered the Sacraments, but the priest was portrayed as a fool. And she prayed. I saw no representation of her prayers or her Catholic teaching or her devotion to Jesus Christ. Maybe we were supposed to figure she was praying during the shots of her stoically sitting in church. Odd. No kneeling, no hands pressed together in prayer. When I viewed the scene of her chugging a drink, I was done. This is a movie about "Cabrini." Not about Mother Cabrini, the saint. They forgot to mention the miracles that occurred in her name which brought her to sainthood. Such a shame to see this obvious anti Catholic bias. It could have been great.

Cabrini is the finest movie ever made about a 19th Century stunning, stoic, strong Italian immigrant woman who wasn't afraid to stand up to a male-dominated world, both within the Catholic church and within the powerful government of New York City. She fought for the orphaned children who were living in squalor in the sewers & slums of NYC. The rats were even living better than the children. Disease was rampant & no one was listening to her pleas for assistance. She was tenacious, determined, and refused to give up, even while living with a lung condition that often weakened her. She also wanted to open hospitals because the local ones refused to take immigrants who were too poor to pay their medical bills. I had never heard about her until this movie. Now, after seeing it, she has become one of my all time heroes!

What a timely movie to watch on International Women's Day. This is the best movie yet that Angel Studios has produced! Storytelling at its best. The acting, the music, and the scenery brought Mother Cabrini's life to the big screen so beautifully. The story was so compelling and intriguing that it kept my interest the entire 2-1/2 hours. You can't help but walk away with compassion in your heart for the many lives she helped throughout her life. Her sheer determination captured my attention and makes me want to be like her. This movie will stay with me for a while. Please continue to make great movies like this one.

The cinematography of this film is executed so well. The angles, leading lines, contrasts, and grand vistas all come together and deliver an exceptional experience. A time period piece is always something that seems rather difficult to take on and it was done here flawlessly. I am a professional photographer and spend lots of time creating me scenes with toys and telling a story with characters and I loved the way this film delivered on all the check boxes. For me the marvel superhero movies are a dime a dozen with flashy speed death of the eye scenes so full of going-ons that no one really knows what is going on. Cabrini delivers on visuals while also telling a beautiful story pertinent to our times as much as historical significance. Cabrini is a movie worth seeing again and again on the big screen!

Cabrini is an inspiring beautifully filmed and acted movie, based on the real life accomplishments of Mother Cabrini. I am not a Catholic, so I was not familiar with this story. It was emotional and thought provoking and hits the very essence of service and love for all humanity. It promotes the powerful love and compassion that a a true feminist would find inspiring, while simultaneously teaching what all man and woman of every race and background are capable of. It describes what a loving world we could have if we just thought more about serving others and instead of worrying about, "what's in it for us". An absolute gem that needed to be made. It's what a film should be.

My wife and I saw Cabrini and to know the story of Frances Xavier Cabrini is awesome, the work that she did relentless in her pursuit to make things better for all people.

I wholeheartedly recommend this film to everybody wanting to understand the plight of what life was about as an immigrant to this country . Her life is an absolute inspiration to all and especially to the young women of this country, never give up .

God Bless Angel Studio for the incredibly outstanding film beautiful actors and their skillful art to tell such a magnificent story of such an iconic figure, that i have read about but never really know all about what she was able to accomplish.

Cabrini is a beautiful and inspiring biopic! It is exactly the kind of movie that we need more of in the cinema. It was not perfect by any means but is better than 90% of the movies that are made today. In terms of the story, I think it could have been better crafted and engaging since it dragged at times, but this is a common problem in biopics since there is usually a lot of ground to cover. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone interested in viewing an inspiring story of this less-than-familiar saint whose selfless determination helped thousands of people and who made the world a better and more beautiful place.

True and amazing story that not many of us know. Powerful example of the impact that one woman can have against all odds by leading with passion, moral courage, perseverance, intelligence and heart. Mother Cabrini is my new favorite female leader.

The actors were well cast and the scenery in NY and Italy were real and beautiful and also very sad as they captured the life and times of the unhoused of that period. Sadly, the discrimination and greed at the turn of the century between the haves and the havenots resemble much of the challenges that exist in today's world just with different players.

Don't miss this excellent and timely film.

There is no doubt that the story of Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini is fascinating, and absolutely worthy of being remembered and told. I do wish it had been told more compellingly than in CABRINI, as by-the-book as a historical biography could be.

Cabrini was a nun, running an orphanage in Lombard, Italy near the end of the 19th century. But she aspired to lead a mission in China, with the goal of bringing hospitals, schools and (of course) Catholicism to those people, and then spreading her mission from there. Pope Leo XIII had different ideas and sent her to the US (NYC in particular) to help downtrodden Italian immigrants there. Cabrini and a handful of sisters travelled there, and managed to establish a truly impressive mission that eventually spread throughout the world. The movie primarily hones in on the time when Cabrini arrives in America and overcame the rather daunting obstacles that faced her in establishing a school/orphanage and then a hospital. The rest of her life is only summarized briefly in text before the closing credits. She faces predictable obstacles: no one wants to spend resources on those awful Italians. The mayor is utterly unsympathetic and the local archbishop, while clearly feeling the pull of the feelings that my first have drawn him to the priesthood, is still guided by his desire to keep his church prosperous by maintaining his relationships with local officials. But our title character uses determination, smarts and some well-placed deceptions to "do what is right." In particular, she gets the press on her side.

It's all interesting stuff, and certainly it's easy to feel outrage at the treatment of the immigrants living in squalor in Five Points. But the archbishop (David Morse) and mayor (John Lithgow), among others, are such cardboard villains, the movie just becomes less and less subtle. (And to a large degree, the good guys are pretty cardboard too...the prostitute with the heart of gold, the children who admire Mother Cabrini so much, the kindly doctor, etc. Etc.). Most nuance is missing here.

Thank goodness, though, for the subtle performance of Cristiana Dell'Anna in the title role. I've never heard of this Italian actress. She's a fairly mesmerizing presence. Cabrini dealt with serious health issues and thus was slight and a bit frail. Yet she had a will of steel, driven by her faith and her own ambition. Dell'Anna conveys all of this with seemingly little effort; she really inhabits this role and her performance elevates this otherwise pedestrian film.

And thank goodness she is so good. This IS a story worth telling (and one I didn't know at all); Dell'Anna makes it worthwhile. So while I wish more elements were handled with more finesse (and I wish the CGI was not so bargain-basement), I can still comfortably recommend the film.

Mother Cabrini changed the world top to bottom. She successfully built hospitals, housed thousands of orphans, and changed immigrants across the world. The movies cinematography was a masterpiece! The actors drew you in. The amazing actress that played Mother Cabrini was almost a mirror image of the photographs of the actual mother Cabrini. The movie flowed like a smooth river putting the Producers at the top of their field. The strength Cabrini through faith and perseverance was a force to reckon with. I will never forget Cabrini's strength. Angel Studios is on a role with high quality films that take your breath away and keep you coming back for the next film!

As an extra in the Senate scene and after spending a day filming and learning what the scene was supposed to be, when it arrived on the big screen it was chopped up in the different direction than what they had originally chose, making it seem thrown together. Knowing that, and watching the entire movie I feel it should've been a three-part miniseries. It seemed that most of the scenes in the movie were chopped together and if there were more time, then more could be told about Mother Cabrini and how she got to where she was.

As an editor and producer for several podcasts I would break it down like this, the production and editing left a lot to be desired and the director could have done a better job.