Cabrini

Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, Cabrini follows a tenacious nun (Cristiana Dell’Anna’s Francesca Cabrini) as her efforts at opening a New York City-based orphanage are complicated by instances of racism and sexism. It’s potentially compelling subject matter that is, right from the word go, employed to uninvolving and underwhelming effect by Monteverde, as the filmmaker, armed with Rod Barr’s screenplay, delivers a hopelessly (and aggressively) overwrought endeavor that progresses through a deliberate, meandering narrative devoid of compelling attributes – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by Dell’Anna’s competent yet bland performance and an ongoing emphasis on scenes and sequences of a pointless, padded-out variety. (The 142 minute running time is unreasonable and absolutely absurd, ultimately.) And while the picture’s epic scale is admirable, Monteverde’s glossy approach, as if the movie’s emerged from a template for Oscar-friendly biopics, ensures that Cabrini remains entirely (and frustratingly) unable to capture the viewer’s interest and attention even fleetingly – with the seemingly endless second half, which feels like an awkwardly-and-artlessly condensed version of a limited streaming series, essentially (and effectively) cementing the film’s place as a thoroughly objectionable, mostly worthless trainwreck. (And this is to say nothing of Barr’s penchant for didactic speechifying over actual instances of dialogue.)

1/2* out of ****