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‘Cabrini’ Highlights the Saint Whose Trust in Christ Changed New York

FILM REVIEW: New film opens March 8.

“During the past few weeks, dark-featured women, in the garb of Sisters of Charity, have been going through the Italian quarters in the Bend and in Little Italy, climbing up dark, steep, and narrow stairways, diving down into foul basements, and into dens which even a New York policeman does not care to enter without assistance. 

“These women are all slight and delicate. They wear a peculiar veil, unlike that of the usual religious devotees, and few can speak English. They are members of an order entirely new to this country, the Silesian [sic] Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is an Italian organization of nuns who look after the welfare of orphans and all that are engaged in this work are of Italian birth.”

So begins an article in New York’s The Sun dated June 30, 1889 , which also described Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini as a “sympathetic woman with large coal-black eyes and a winning smile. … She is the founder of the order and has done wonderful work in providing refuges for the orphans in Italy.” 

The article even quoted the future saint about her work. “Our object,” she said, “is to rescue the Italian orphans of the city from the misery and dangers that threaten them and to make good men and women of them.”

This real-life milieu inspires the new film from Angel Studios (known for The Chosen ), Cabrini , which opens with an incident all too common in late-19th-century New York City: A young Italian immigrant boy desperately pushes his mother lying in a cart, frantically begging for help for the dying woman. Well-dressed upper-class New Yorkers stroll along, ignoring his pleas. The scene transitions to Mother Cabrini (Cristiana Dell’Anna), herself not well, and her nuns in Lombardy, Italy, and then to the Vatican. 

When the cardinal assistant to Pope Leo XIII again refuses Mother Cabrini’s request to take her sisters to China, she remembers the time she nearly drowned as a child and overheard the doctor tell her mother, “Your daughter is very weak and would be so as long as she lives. … Now her bed will be her life. That is where she belongs.”

Crucial to her character is her determination that obviously proved the doctor wrong — and an unshakable reliance on Providence as she cares for the orphans and destitute.

Citing an event from the New Testament to convince the cardinal, the determined nun insists on hearing the decision from the Holy Father himself. Pope Leo (Giancarlo Giannini) is intrigued by her determination and her resolve to not hear “No” for an answer, yet she is always obedient to the Church. The Pope permits her to go to the “West,” not to the “East,” in order to care for the orphaned and destitute Italian diaspora in New York. 

Giannini, an iconic Italian actor whose career spans nearly six decades, embodies the character of the Pope as if it were tailor-made for him. He conveys a quiet authority and deep understanding expected of such a major figure of the Church. This scene between the Pope and religious becomes the exemplar for viewers as they get to know Mother Cabrini, who is depicted as always persistent, resolute and undaunted, even in the face of severe prejudice. But she unflinchingly responds in ways that have kindness, respect and love as the foundation of her determination. She is, as St. Paul says of love, never rude. Her ways draw in those who are at first suspicious of her and her motives, like Vittoria, the girl of the streets; and Paolo and his friend, both streetwise orphans.

It also becomes the foundation for the scenes with New York Archbishop Michael Corrigan (David Morse), who decides he does not want the aid of Cabrini or her nuns and tells them to go back to their homeland. Again, Mother Cabrini visits the Pope and goes back with his permission. Before he eventually becomes an admirer of Mother Cabrini, the archbishop tells her she can solicit funds only from the deeply impoverished Italians, not from rich New Yorkers. Tough Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) bullies and threatens the Church leader as a consequence. (Fact-check: The name of the mayor at the time was not Gould but Grant.)

Amid all such confrontations, what stands out about Mother Cabrini, as the film highlights, is that she was bold but never rash and impetuous. She was strong yet ever kind to those who vigorously opposed her. She did not argue. She listened and then resourcefully looked for and found a solution that would be agreeable, one way or the other. For her, what mattered was the good of the people — for their lives were on the line as well as their souls. She was always gentle with children and those in need, wanting them to flourish as good Christians and citizens.

In every instance, Mother Cabrini comes to life in this way through a magnificent Cristiana Dell’Anna in a portrayal that sings of greatness, especially in ways that subtly project Cabrini’s own physical struggles while helping others, her love for the orphan and destitute, and her unshakeable determination in getting help for those in need, even if that meant daring to confront the entire Italian Senate to plead for aid for their countrymen and women in dire straits in America. Dell’Anna’s performance shines with the inner strength that the real Cabrini, who saw the setbacks as a cross but steadfastly relied on the Lord, exhibited in her holy life. She is part of a cast that works as a rare ensemble, thanks to director Alejandro Monteverde . The visits Mother Cabrini has with Archbishop Corrigan are works of subtle dramatic art, as are those vignettes between the resolute nun and Leo XIII.

Morse, a familiar face of theater, TV and film (notably St. Elsewhere , Contact , The Green Mile ), firmly and convincingly brings out the somewhat hesitant and vacillating archbishop caught between supporting Mother Cabrini and pacifying the mayor. One cannot help but both feel sorry for him and hope that he would support Mother Cabrini fully. 

Lithgow, another award-winning veteran of TV, film and the stage ( 3rd Rock From the Sun , The Crown , Interstellar , Life’s Greatest Miracle ), provides additional gravitas to this film. Throughout, Lithgow’s City Hall bullying politics are no match for a composed Cabrini and her polite shrewdness. She outplays and outwits the mayor at his own political game. It leads him to compliment her, describing her by a true line from someone else in her history that will surprise viewers.

Surely a composite figure of many girls Mother Cabrini saved and helped is Vittoria, the street girl who was forced into prostitution (which is suggested but not amplified). Actress Romana Vergano brings out inner goodness waiting for the right person — in this case, Mother Cabrini — to let free. As  Vittoria grows in strength and virtue, at a critical moment she spurs her mentor on by recalling something the stalwart nun once told her.

The director, producers and writers of Sound of Freedom used a distinct filming approach. Monteverde, who also directed Bella (2006) and Little Boy (2015), explained how he considered the story like an opera and choreographed it, “so it became like a dance. I shot in a very different way than I’ve shot any other film.” Incidentally, Mother Cabrini liked opera and music. 

Monteverde achieves something not only artistic but poetic, with his compositions and camerawork. The director’s approach leads to smooth transitions as the film glides along gracefully like the paper boats Cabrini as a young girl made and sailed on pretend “missionary trips.” Indeed, in one of the early scenes, the camera glides slowly along the water and then to the ship, showing the good sisters on their way to serve in America.

Arriving at Five Points in Manhattan, Mother Cabrini and her sisters are confronted with shabby, squalid and sleazy neighborhoods. The settings are strongly based on the many photographs of these actual slums taken at the time by 19th-century New York journalist and photographer Jacob Riis. The camera gradually glides from the overwhelming slums into a livable home, the nuns’ first step in making a cheerful place for the first children in their care — transitioning from darkness to light.

The symbols of light and dark enhance the story. Sometimes the action goes on in the center, surrounded by the darkness, symbolic of the problems that Mother Cabrini faced, including searching for people living in dank cellars, lantern in hand, conveying she is the light in the darkness for the orphans and abused.

The camera glides, taking Cabrini from her sickbed to a dream of her floating in the water as a child when she almost drowned, and that glide blends into her view through a window: seeing the New York throng. But as the Irish doctor treating her then, who is sympathetic to the immigrants, gives her two or three years to live because of her poor health, her facial expression conveys what she knows from Scripture: She can do all things in Christ, who strengthens her — and goes on to prove it by her work. 

Overall, the film focuses on Mother Cabrini’s entrepreneurial skills more than her prayer life. Producer J. Eustace Wolfington, a longtime devotee of Mother Cabrini, was recently quoted as saying, “I would like to get across her leadership, organizational and entrepreneurial skills.” (Mother Cabrini is also listed as the film’s “Executive Producer.”) At the same time, at critical moments, she reminds an aggressor of crucial words in the Scriptures. And she put Matthew 25 into action every day. Mother Cabrini herself saw difficulties as a sign that Jesus was close : “It does not matter what kind of wood the cross is made of. It is enough to know it comes to us from Jesus.”

The credits explain there is some literary license taken. Some parts are dramatized and facts rearranged or relocated. 

For example, at one point there was an arson incident in a hospital she was building, but it happened later, and in Chicago, not New York. There is another such incident that is true but happened at a different location. Naturally, jumping from location to location would damage the unity of the drama and be confusing, something this dramatic, highly moving story is not. 

This film is a fine tribute to Mother Cabrini and her nuns, themselves facing prejudice, and their tireless work in the foul tenements and essentially invisible locales, bringing help and hope to immigrants in need. 

As the basic story of the start of the American mission of Mother Cabrini, “Patroness of Immigrants,” Cabrini proves itself to be an unforgettable, magnificent film that does justice to the unflappable saint, whose life testified to Christ: “The Heart of Jesus does things in such a hurry that I can barely keep up with him.”

VIEWER CAVEAT

Rated PG-13, for thematic material, some violence, language and smoking; for ticket presales and to learn more, go to: Angel.com/movies/cabrini . The film opens March 8; film duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes. Sections of the film are in Italian with subtitles.

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Joseph Pronechen Joseph Pronechen is staff writer with the National Catholic Register since 2005 and before that a regular correspondent for the paper. His articles have appeared in a number of national publications including Columbia magazine, Soul , Faith and Family , Catholic Digest , Catholic Exchange , and Marian Helper . His religion features have also appeared in Fairfield County Catholic and in major newspapers. He is the author of Fruits of Fatima — Century of Signs and Wonders . He holds a graduate degree and formerly taught English and courses in film study that he developed at a Catholic high school in Connecticut. Joseph and his wife Mary reside on the East Coast.

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Traditional Catholic Movies

1. The Passion of the Christ

2. The Song of Bernadette

3. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

4. A Man for All Seasons

5. The Agony and the Ecstasy

6. Joan of Arc

7. The Scarlet and the Black

9. The Ten Commandments

10. Come to the Stable

11. The Miracle of Marcelino

12. Quo Vadis

13. Barabbas

14. The Bells of St. Mary's

15. I Confess

16. The Keys of the Kingdom

17. Francis of Assisi

18. The Robe

19. Captain from Castile

20. Thérèse: The Story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

21. ITV Saturday Night Theatre

22. Saintly Sinners

23. Monsieur Vincent

24. The Reluctant Saint

25. Prince of Foxes

26. The Prisoner

27. The Detective

28. For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada

More to explore, recently viewed.

Catholic Movie Guy

Because Catholics Like Movies, Too

Here is a collection of great resources for the Catholic movie-lover:

Catholic Movie Reviews

Decent Films

Kids In Mind (excruciatingly detailed content reviews)

USCCB Archived Movie Reviews

Unam Sanctam Traditional Catholic Movie Reviews

And other great Catholic sites/podcasts:

Saint Louis Catholic

Uncommon Good

Our review of “Cabrini,” and why even secular critics seem to like it

Courtesy of Angel Studios

Notwithstanding Mel Gibson, who showed up to Passion of the Christ already world famous, the faith-based film genre is not one that generally produces household names. However, Alejandro Gómez Monteverde may just end up being the person to change that. After his last effort, 2022’s Sound of Freedom , shockingly became a number one box office hit, many eyes were on the writer/director to see what he would come up with next. That follow-up has finally arrived in the form of Cabrini , a biographical tale of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini’s efforts to establish a charitable mission in 1889 New York, and it is surprisingly receiving positive word of mouth from critics who have seen advanced screenings.

Why surprisingly? Well, because the professional critic class typically loathes Monteverde’s films even as audiences love them. One need only look at the Tomatometer scores of Monteverde’s prior three films for evidence of this. Bella (2006) received 44% approval from critics, while garnering an 81% affirmation from audiences. Little Boy (2015) showed an even greater divide, with critics granting a meager 25% favorable rating as opposed to 78% of audiences who enjoyed it. Most inexplicably, only 57% of critics looked kindly on Sound of Freedom , while an overwhelming 99% of audiences extolled its virtues. So, yes, it’s a tad surprising that, at least as of this writing, 75% of professional critics on Rotten Tomatoes have found something good to say about Cabrini .

Reading through reviews, it’s obvious that past opposition to Monteverde’s work has been based mostly on his films’ ideology rather than their obvious quality. Bella was unabashedly pro-life, while Little Boy was a love letter to the power of prayer; two ideas which are typically anathema to mainstream movie journalism. The vitriol towards Sound of Freedom was a bit more baffling as the film’s primary purpose was to bring attention to the scourge of human trafficking, but somehow most critics managed to find the film unsuitable to their politics and lambasted it despite its pro-human rights message. And yet, despite such disdain for Monteverde’s past filmography, most critics so far seem to like Cabrini .

Does this mean Monteverde is beginning to cave and make movies more in tune with the mindset of secular critics? Nope, not at all.

Cabrini features as its main character a nun who never once wavers in her faith or questions the teachings of the Church. She believes she has received a mission from God to serve the poor, and she steadfastly pursues that goal with not a single side look given to worldly enticements. She starts the film as a good Christian and remains one as the credits roll. Honestly, you would think that alone would be enough for secular critics to despise this movie. So, why don’t they?

Part of the reason is no doubt due to how well-made Cabrini is. The film is as lavish looking as any historical drama Hollywood puts out these days and the acting from its international cast is top notch all around, especially that of Cristiana Dell’Anna, who is more than convincing as the determined saint-to-be. A scattering of familiar faces from filmdom in the likes of John Lithgow, David Morse, and Giancarlo Giannini also lend the film mainstream credibility.

It’s more than that, though. What likely appeals most to critics who are usually cold in their reception of Monteverde’s body of work is that there is a bit of a “girl power” theme that runs throughout the narrative of the film. 

Not to be alarmed, though. It’s not the type of “girl power” that is obnoxiously or artificially forced on some movies, but rather one that is simply inherent in the facts of Mother Cabrini’s story. For instance, when the Vatican shows reluctance to allow a simple nun to start a massively expensive overseas mission from scratch, it’s not depicted as some evil anti-female conspiracy (not entirely anyway), but as a realistic acknowledgement that a woman from Italy will have little to no sway in pre-19th Amendment New York where Italian Catholic immigrants are perceived as vermin, or worse. As such, much of the film’s entertainment value comes from watching the good Mother match wits with a reticent Pope and the New York political machine embodied by Lithgow’s Mayor Gould. Despite every possible obstacle, she draws on the power of her faith and forges ahead, oft while repeating her mantra, “Begin the mission, and the means will follow.” 

So, yes, Cabrini is “girl power,” but with an acknowledgement that such power, when authentic, comes from a higher source. That may not be entirely in line with modern secular thought, but it seems good enough for the critics this time around. Even if it wasn’t, though, those inclined to recognize such truths will find in Cabrini another winner from Monteverde. Of course, given its religious subject matter, Cabrini is unlikely to duplicate the lightning in a bottle box office success of Sound of Freedom , but its overall quality should be more than enough to convince faith-based film fans that they finally have a superstar director to call their own.

Cabrini opens in theaters on March 8, 2024. Find showtimes here .

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Catholic Movie Review: Mary of Nazareth

By Joseph McAleer Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — The story of the Gospels unfolds through the eyes of the mother of God in "Mary of Nazareth" (Ignatius Press Films), a beautiful, often moving depiction of the life of Mary from her childhood through the passion and resurrection of her son.

Italian director Giacomo Campiotti (2002’s "Doctor Zhivago") has produced a handsome and respectful film, with a gifted international cast and some luminous cinematography shot in Tunisia. The script, by Francesco Arlanch, more or less follows the biblical account, with a few intriguing departures, inspired by apocryphal writings, that heighten the drama.

For example, we are told that King Herod (Andrea Giordana) heard a prophesy of a girl who would one day bring forth a savior, prompting him to terrorize Judea, in a precursor to the slaughter of the innocents. Mary’s parents, Ann (Antonella Attili) and Joachim (Roberto Citran), hide their young daughter, keeping her safe.

Mary (Alissa Jung) is a joyful but special child, one whom dogs and snakes fear. Her parents are happy but often perplexed. After Mary’s betrothal to Joseph (Luca Marinelli), and the Annunciation, a resigned Joachim tells Mary, "Forgive me. I always knew you were a mystery, but I never knew how great a mystery."

The Nativity (unfortunately, Joseph misses the birth, as he leaves the cave to fetch water) is beautifully rendered. Mary possesses a strong, almost psychic bond with her young son, aware when he is hurt or in danger, and experiencing visions of his future Passion in her mind.

Once Jesus (Andreas Pietschmann) begins his public ministry ("He couldn’t stay and be a carpenter forever," Joseph says), Mary is always present, strong and compassionate, helping when she can. But when she asks him for assistance with the wine at Cana, she later worries she was impulsive, forcing Jesus to act before he was ready.

Mary not only shares her son’s ministry, but also his pain. Every blow during the scourging is felt by Mary, as is the slow agony of Crucifixion. She literally crawls up the hill of Calvary on her hands and knees to be near her dying son.

The depictions of the slaughter of the innocents and the Passion are graphic, even harrowing, which pre-teens might find upsetting.

But for the rest of the family, "Mary of Nazareth" makes for an enriching catechetical experience that’s also both inspiring and entertaining. The film is fittingly dedicated "to all mothers, whose life-giving, sacrificial love, like Mary, changes the world."

"Mary of Nazareth" is available for sponsored screenings in theaters, and is expected to be released on DVD later this year. For more information, visit www.maryfilm.com.

The film contains several scenes of bloody violence and death. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

– – –

McAleer is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.

Copyright (c)2014 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS – 3211 Fourth St NE – Washington DC 20017 – 202.541.3250

© 2024 Catholic Courier

I was worried ‘Cabrini’ would be another sappy religious movie. I was wrong.

Like many a solid New York Catholic, I was taken as a boy to see Mother Cabrini, under glass , at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in Upper Manhattan. The bodies of saints, my mother told me at the time, do not decompose. Ah, I thought, that explains it. My sense of dread was replaced by awe.

My sense of dread over the film “Cabrini”? It was replaced by respect, even joy, after encountering this less-than-exhaustive but elevating piece of biographical filmmaking about the immigrant Italian activist, healer and early Manhattan developer (of hospitals and orphanages)—the woman who became the first American saint. Mom may have been wrong, but she told a good story. So does “Cabrini.”

My apprehensions were twofold. The sad fact is, many films with a fervent religious message stress the message and fail to be good movies; “Cabrini,” while certainly a hagiography, is dramatically and cinematically sound and even, now and then, visually breathtaking. (The cinematographer is the Spaniard Gorka Gómez Andreu.) My other worry was the movie’s director and co-writer: Alejandro Monteverde of “Sound of Freedom,” the sensationalistic, QAnon-approved thriller and box-office smash of last summer. No one wants to argue against a movie demonizing child-trafficking, or glorifying the fight against it, but most viewers don’t look forward to being emotionally manipulated either. Would I be told that Mother Cabrini’s pro-Italian campaign in the Five Points slum of 1800s New York was being thwarted by a band of Soros-funded liberals kidnapping children and holding them in the basement of Lombardi’s pizza parlor on Spring Street? Anything can happen. None of this does.

But fear not: There is much to raise one’s ire and indignation in “Cabrini,” concentrating as it does on the sister’s fight against both church and state in trying to better the lives of the unfortunate—while she still has the time. As the screenplay by Monteverde and Rob Barr tells it, Cabrini, born in 1850, nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ill health. Ultimately, she founded her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , and added Xavier to her name, after the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier.

This movie takes place after all that. Portrayed by a gauntly radiant Cristiana Dell’Anna, Cabrini pursues a plan that would have taken her to the Far East, but having badgered the Vatican about it to no avail—her M.O. in the movie is speaking truth to power and doing so relentlessly —she is finally told by Pope Leo XIII himself (a welcome Giancarlo Giannini) that she ought to go instead to New York. There, an explosion circa 1887 of Italian immigration, prejudice and poverty was creating a particular kind of hell for their exported countrymen. You can do much good by going west, she is told by the pontiff—who in fact, if not the film, rebuked the New York archbishop, Michael Corrigan (David Morse), for his mistreatment of his Italian congregation, which Corrigan viewed as no such thing.

Corrigan becomes one of Cabrini’s nemeses, along with the Irish and the N.Y.P.D., which were basically the same thing; various functionaries who just get in her way; and Mayor Gould (a terrific John Lithgow), with whom the nun plays political chess, to the mayor’s surprise and chagrin. (The name Gould doesn’t correspond to a real-life New York mayoralty but is an intriguing choice for the character’s name, given the robber-baron era in which “Cabrini” is set.) Her allies include the prostitute Vittoria (Romana Maggiora Vergano), a traditionalist’s Mary Magdalene to Cabrini’s slowly martyred Christ figure; and Theodore Calloway (Jeremy Bobb), a New York Times reporter who publishes exposes on the plight of the Five Points (“Rats have it better”)—stories that probably have been more likely in the World or Herald, but the film doesn’t take many liberties, and there are few notable omissions.

It’s curious that Jesus is never named in the film (unless he simply never made it into the abundant English subtitles) and that Cabrini’s miracles can’t be mentioned, as they occurred after the movie’s timeframe—although her discovery of drinking water on the land she received from the Jesuits, where they had failed to find any, passes as one.

Archbishop Corrigan gets something of a whitewash by the end of the movie, though its depiction of the Five Points slum—which David McCullough, in his masterful The Great Bridge , called the most notorious in American history and which has been recreated by the likes of Martin Scorsese—seems starkly real. The site of the former Collect Pond, a onetime source of water for New York, the neighborhood was a subterranean, purgatorial pit in which a succession of immigrant groups and Black Americans would live, suffer and die, all under the nose of Gilded Era Manhattan. The portrait is infernal, ambitiously cinematic and makes the work of Cabrini and her sisters all the more impressive, and thoroughly absorbing.

John Anderson is a television critic for The Wall Street Journal and a contributor to The New York Times.

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Movie Review: Thérèse , the Story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse Martin of Lisieux, called in religion Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24 in the Carmelite convent at Lisieux.

An Obscure Life of Great Impact

Apart from a trip to Rome at the age of 14, Thérèse never traveled far from Lisieux, where her family settled when she was four years old following the death of her mother. Unlike, say, Mother Theresa of Calcutta (whose name in religion was taken from the saint of Lisieux), Thérèse founded no order, did no great works, and lived a life of complete obscurity.

Her only legacy was her memoir, written under holy obedience to her sister Pauline who was then prioress of the convent. So unremarkable, indeed, was her life that as her cause for sainthood went forward one of the sisters of her convent remarked that Thérèse “hadn’t done anything.”

Yet Thérèse’s impact on the world has been startlingly disproportionate to her obscure way of life. Her memoir, L’histoire d’une âme or The Story of a Soul , has been translated into over 60 languages, first in a heavily edited edition produced by her sister and then in a restored critical edition, and has sold over 100 million copies.

A favorite of Catholic piety, The Story of a Soul is written in a charming, unsophisticated style that can be a stumbling-block to the jaded, but its spiritual depths have commended it to popes and theologians, Protestants and even non-Christians.

Canonized in 1925, Thérèse was declared “the greatest saint of the modern age” by Pope Pius X, and was later named one of France’s two patronesses, along with her heroine Joan of Arc. In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Universal Church — only the third woman so honored among the Church’s thirty-three Doctors.

“Ordinary girl. Extraordinary soul” is the tagline of Thérèse , Catholic actor-director Leonardo Defilippis’s reverent, uplifting, straightforward biopic of the Little Flower. Of the tagline’s two clauses, the film’s special burden seems to be the first part, “ordinary girl.” As depicted here, Thérèse (played in childhood by Melissa Sumpter and from approximately 10 to her death by Lindsay Younce) is certainly pious and devout, but unlike many movie saints there’s nothing off-puttingly otherworldly or ethereal about her.

When a classmate at school picks on her, calling her a “spoiled princess” and telling her that no one can stand her, she responds not with magnanimous forbearance but with ordinary hurt feelings and anger. We see Thérèse playing with her sisters, struggling with quadratic equations, getting upset over Christmas presents. Later, in the Carmelite convent, we see her putting together a pageant with two older sisters, also Carmelite nuns. “You Martin sisters and your bourgeois ways,” a superior clucks.

The Thérèse of this film is, indeed, so ordinary that one might ultimately feel a sort of disconnect as a closing title informs us that “Because she showed the world a 'little way' to get to heaven, she has been called the greatest saint of modern times.”

Little Exploration of the Little Way

Had the closing title mentioned that she is also the third female Doctor of the Church, the sense of cognitive dissonance might be greater still. An “ordinary girl” this Thérèse certainly is, and a virtuous, deeply religious one. Yet admirable as she may be, there’s little sense here of the saint’s “extraordinary soul.”

Thérèse covers the major events in the saint’s life as recounted in The Story of a Soul , but offers little insight into her teaching, little exploration of her “little way” of spiritual childhood. We do see the spiritual transformation that occurs at her fifteenth Christmas, when Thérèse said she received the grace to “grow up” and “forget myself and please others”; and we are told that she began to sacrifice for others by giving up her own will “in little ways no one noticed.”

There are also a few references to Thérèse’s littleness and simplicity. “I knew I was a very little soul who could offer only little things to God,” she writes in her memoirs. Later, when a superior tells her, “You are a very simple soul, and the closer you get to God, the simpler you will become,” Thérèse responds, “I don’t need to grow up — I need to become little and weak.” We also hear the key line, “At last I have found my vocation — my vocation is love.”

Yet the movie tells rather than shows. When Thérèse speaks of giving up her own will and pleasing others, there’s a brief montage of Thérèse bringing her father a drink in the field and the like, but the film never takes us into Thérèse’s interest in the happiness of those around her, or of its connection with Thérèse’s actions.

Nor do we learn what was so distinctive about Thérèse’s little way. We never see her, for example, as a postulant suffering under and finally learning to mistrust the heavy ascetical practices that Carmel required, or resolve that, rather than presuming to impose great suffering upon herself (which she was aware can “quickly become a work of nature rather than grace”), she would instead in humility accept without complaint whatever suffering Jesus should send her. We never learn that she was later in charge of novices, or see her putting aside those harsh penances for her charges.

The excerpts from Thérèse’s writings incorporated into the screenplay by Patti Defilippis are welcome, but they lack Thérèse’s most arresting insights into spiritual childhood, her most creative expressions of the extravagance of divine love. Take her kaleidoscope metaphor, drawn from an experience with a childhood plaything. Dismantling it, Thérèse had discovered that all the magical patterns were nothing more than bits of colored paper and cloth, reflected in geometrical beauty by an array of mirrors.

As with that kaleidoscope, she later wrote, our trivial actions, reflected in the love of the Blessed Trinity, take on splendor and brilliance — yet apart from God’s love, they are merely dross, soiled and worthless deeds. In Thérèse’s writings this colorful visual image is merely black and white words; on the screen it could have been realized in living color, from the childhood experience of that kaleidoscope to the moral drawn later. Unfortunately, Thérèse is more focused on the saint herself than on her teaching.

In its zeal to honor Thérèse’s virtue, the film ironically neglects to acknowledge adequately the natural obstacles she had to overcome. As a child, Thérèse was somewhat spoiled and immature, hypersensitive, obsessively scrupulous, and easily given to tears. She was deeply shy, yet formed fierce private attachments even to casual acquaintances, with heartbreaking consequences. All this is either absent or barely acknowledged in the film.

A fleeting scene depicts Thérèse’s father (well played by director Defilippis) cheerfully calming her scrupulous worries about such offenses as taking the biggest piece of cake. Later, on that momentous Christmas, we see her run upstairs in tears at overhearing her father’s comment about this being Thérèse’s last Christmas for presents in her slippers. But that’s about it.

Sweet, Inspirational Moviemaking

Selfishness, petulance, and quarreling are unknown in the Martin household. “You are the most perfect sister in the world,” Thérèse tells her sister, who replies, “No, you are.” It’s a close call; all the Martins are about as perfect as can be. Of Thérèse’s tearfulness (other than that Christmas scene, though in fact Thérèse did not cry on that occasion) or her occasional bickering with her sisters, and certainly of sister Léonie’s dark troubles — of the malicious maid who secretly abused her, and the emotional difficulties Léonie suffered as a result — there is no hint.

Toward the end, when Thérèse undergoes her greatest spiritual trials, the film spares us her real inner turmoil, giving us only a voiceover of Thérèse writing, “Jesus has permitted my soul to be invaded by a thick darkness.” As Thérèse, Lindsay Younce is unaffected and engaging, but her reading of such lines lacks conviction; she doesn’t sound like her soul has been invaded by a thick darkness. On the other hand, her performance in the deathbed scene, when Thérèse can hardly catch her breath, is uncomfortably affecting.

Among the film’s better moments is a lighthearted sequence in which Thérèse, assisting a crotchety old sister to supper, is incorrigibly distracted by a heavenly song in her heart, and can’t stop herself from swaying back and forth to the music, much to the discomfiture of her unsteady companion. And Defilippis effectively suggests rather than shows his character’s slow, sad slide into dementia with a poignant shot of the old man shuffling away down the road into the distance.

Despite its flaws, Thérèse is sweet, inspirational moviemaking that will be enjoyed by Catholics who love the Little Flower, or who are open to learning about her. Promotional materials cite the Merchant-Ivory film A Room With a View as a touchstone, but Thérèse is closer in spirit to such inspirational classics as The Song of Bernadette , and is old-fashioned enough to accompany moments of disorientation or reverie with a tinkly harp effect on the soundtrack. Unlike the Merchant-Ivory films, it isn’t interested in psychology or complex motivations, but in faith and goodness.

Realistically, hopes of Thérèse ’s appeal reaching outside the believing world, or even outside the Catholic community, are unlikely to be realized. The film lacks the psychological depth and spiritual insight that attracts non-Catholics to The Story of a Soul . But nominal or lapsed Catholics could be moved by its simple portrait of devotion and piety, and inspired to return to a more earnest practice of their faith.

(c) 2004 Steven D. Greydanus. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Steven D. Greydanus is a film critic for the National Catholic Register and appears weekly on Ave Maria radio. His website offers in-depth reviews of both contemporary and older films, evaluating them for moral and spiritual worth as well as artistic and entertainment value.

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The best movies I watched in 2023

By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jan 23, 2024

In the past, I’ve listed my favorite films I saw for the first time in the last year along with my books in the article on that topic . This time, I have decided to give the movies their own article for the sake of space.

As you may know, I co-host Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast with James Majewski. In the past year we finished our 3-year journey through the 1995 Vatican Film List, and then moved on to consider other works. Some of the films I mention here are from the Vatican film list or otherwise covered on the podcast, and in those cases I will link to the relevant episode—but most of the films on this list are movies I watched on my own.

Watch at your own risk; make a habit of doing your own research when it comes to content (I find the IMBD parents’ guide useful).

Religious films

Natalia . The only film on my list that was actually released in 2023, this (not Padre Pio ) was the Catholic film event of the year. But few as yet know it, because it’s just been on the festival circuit, not yet having found a distributor for wider release. Natalia is a raw and mesmerizing documentary about religious discernment, following a spunky young Byzantine Catholic nun during the months leading up to her final profession. (You may be familiar with the film’s protagonist, Mother Natalia, because of her numerous appearances on Matt Fradd’s podcast Pints with Aquinas.)

Rather than being a talking-heads infodump, Natalia is squarely in arthouse doc territory with beautiful black-and-white photography, and the absence of voiceover or direct interviews makes it feel more like a drama. I had the privilege of hosting a screening of Natalia at my apartment, and recording an interview with director Elizabeth Mirzaei (which we are waiting to publish until the general public is able to see the film).

I’m quite excited for more people to see this film eventually…In the meantime, you might check out the touching Oscar-nominated short film Mirzaei co-directed with her husband, Three Songs for Benazir , on Netflix.

The Miracle Maker . This little-known animated Gospel film with Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Jesus, which we discussed on Criteria , could merit a place in any Christian family’s Easter viewing. Its beautifully crafted mix of stop-motion and traditional 2D animation engages the imagination without dominating it in a way that live-action cinema can’t.

It’s also a masterful piece of adaptation, compressing the story of Christ into 88 minutes. It somehow retains the compactness of the Gospel accounts, yet feels fleshed out by subtle touches and connections within the existing material rather than overmuch invention.

Ordet ( The Word ). Included on the Vatican film list along with The Passion of Joan of Arc by the same director, Ordet is based on a play by the Lutheran priest Kaj Munk, who was later martyred by the Gestapo. The film centers on the Borgen family, land-owning farmers in a small village in Denmark. The patriarch, Morton Borgen, is a religious man, but his oldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while his second son Johannes, while studying theology, has gone mad and believes he is Jesus Christ Himself.

Ordet can be viewed as a provocative critique of a modern Christianity that no longer believes in miracles. Its astonishing conclusion throws down the gauntlet, forcing us to consider what it really means to have faith.

The Thin Red Line . Terrence Malick’s comeback after two decades away from moviemaking was, in my opinion, both his first masterpiece and his first full-on religious film. It’s a war movie, but really more about finding the beauty of existence in the midst of chaos, suffering and evil. Many Catholics became more aware of Malick after he covered a saint in his 2019 A Hidden Life . If you haven’t seen The Thin Red Line or if Malick hasn’t piqued your interest yet, let Jim Caviezel’s breakout role entice you.

Rome, Open City . Filmed in Rome just after its liberation from the Nazis, while the rest of Italy was still at war, Roberto Rossellini’s film documents a unique moment in the history of the Eternal City. Catholicism is central to the film, with Aldo Fabrizi playing one of the great heroic movie priests, almost an Italian counterpart to the one in On the Waterfront .

Apocalypto . Is this a religious film? Well, it’s a film in which religion plays an important part, though that religion is decidedly not Catholicism. Set in Mesoamerica immediately before first contact with the Spanish, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto features a protagonist from a small forest tribe who is captured by Mayans for the purpose of human sacrifice (depicted as the mass-scale brutality it was) and must try to escape back to his family. Gibson’s depiction of Mesoamerican peoples is sensitive and sympathetic but not PC. Rather than a triumphalistic depiction of evil, Gibson wanted this film to make us reflect on the decadence of the modern West and in particular the American Empire. The film is about a culture of death not unlike our own. It’s a stunningly ambitious recreation of a lost civilization, but also a thoroughly entertaining chase movie.

Films of conscience

Schindler’s List . This masterpiece by Steven Spielberg conveys something of the horror of the Holocaust in a way that is honest without feeling the need to traumatize the viewer. More importantly, it offers a real spiritual challenge which will especially resonate with those who wish to give everything to God.

La Promesse ( The Promise ). A Belgian teen whose father both helps and exploits illegal immigrants is faced with a crisis of conscience when one of them dies on the job and his father covers it up. A beautiful drama shot in documentary style by the Dardenne brothers.

Ikiru ( To Live ). Director Akira Kurosawa is better known for samurai films like Seven Samurai and Rashomon , but his story of an elderly bureaucrat who decides his life finally needs to bear some fruit moved me more than any other Kurosawa film I’ve seen.

Japanese animation

Spirited Away and The Wind Rises . This year I made a point of beginning to explore the films of Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s equivalent to Walt Disney (but better). Miyazaki says , “If you go out looking for something shameful or vulgar, then finding it in this society is one of the easiest things imaginable. I thought it might be better to express in an honest way that what is good is good, what is pretty is pretty, and what is beautiful is beautiful.”

British classics

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp . During the second world war, an elderly major-general reminisces about his military and romantic career. As we move from the Boer War to the Great War to WWII, we gain respect for a character who at first seemed somewhat ridiculous. This movie deals with three or four major themes at once without ever feeling bloated, and the color is amazing for 1943.

The Third Man . This ultra-atmospheric noir has been voted the greatest British film ever. Sinister evocations of postwar Vienna. Written by Graham Greene with the famous “cuckoo clock” monologue added by Orson Welles.

American classics

My Darling Clementine . One of John Ford’s loveliest Westerns, though I don’t hear it mentioned as often as The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance . “Have you ever been in love?” “No, I’ve been a bartender all my life.”

In a Lonely Place . What at first seems to be a normal noir crime story ends up being about the breakdown of a relationship. Classic Humphrey Bogart performance.

Indian cinema

This is a new area of exploration for me. Most people think Indian cinema means Bollywood, but that term applies only to the Hindi film industry. Indian movies are highly regional and there are several different industries according to language group—thus I have barely scratched the surface.

Pyaasa . Starring and directed by Guru Dutt in 1957, this is considered one of the classics of Hindi cinema (and the only Hindi film I’ve seen). It’s a musical, a love story, and a spiritual journey of a down-and-out poet. It ends with surprising spiritual force and has a couple of songs I find highly moving. You can see it on YouTube .

Jumping to the present day and a different region of India, we have the Malayalam film industry, based in Kerala, which is where most of India’s Catholics live. One of the chief directors of the so-called “Malayalam New Wave” is Lijo Jose Pellissery, most of whose films are set in Catholic communities. Nicknamed the “Master of Chaos” because of his off-the-chain crowd scenes, Pellissery works at a level of cinematic craft that puts contemporary Hollywood to shame. We featured him on Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast , and I’ll recommend two of his films here:

Jallikattu . An off-the-wall action movie about villagers trying to chase down an escaped bull—framed within quotations from the book of Revelation which seem to indicate that the bull represents Satan.

Ee.Ma.Yau . The title refers to the names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph invoked in the ears of a dead person lying in state; the movie is about a son struggling to provide a good funeral for his father, but constantly being frustrated by his own limits. You can watch this one on YouTube .

Switching over to the Telugu-language film industry: RRR . This was a worldwide hit in 2022 and is the third-highest grossing Indian film of all time. It won the Oscar for best original song. RRR is a period film very loosely based on two heroes of the Indian independence movement, who are essentially treated as superheroes. “Friendship between opposites” is the theme, as explicitly laid out by the awesome title song (the title, by the way, doesn’t appear until 40 minutes into the movie). The story is from a Hindu perspective and the British are cartoonishly villainous. I can’t stress enough how incredibly entertaining this movie is.

Blade Runner . I can’t say that the story made a deep impression on me, but it is a masterpiece of visual concept and atmosphere.

Minority Report . For some reason I never thought of Spielberg as a genre director, but after watching this it finally clicked me that this guy is a master of conceptual sci-fi. While A . I . is depressing and nihilistic (seriously, the ending of that film messed me up), Minority Report offers a clear defense of free will against psychological and environmental determinism.

Short films

Who cares about short films, really? Well actually, anyone who regularly spends time on YouTube. But these are movies, not “content”. I have linked to some of them on YouTube, but the video quality is inferior to what you will find on the Criterion Channel streaming service.

Films by Abbas Kiarostami. This Iranian director was one of the greats of world cinema. His early career in the 70s was under the employ of the Center for the Education of Children in Tehran, where he made many short films either for or about children. The Colors is a very simple film educating small children about colors—but it is beautiful and becomes more conceptually clever as it goes on. Bread and Alley is a delightful short about a little boy carrying some bread home and encountering a hungry dog that blocks his path. The Traveler , a bit darker and not for kids to watch, is about a delinquent 12-year-old who will do anything to make it to attend a major soccer match 150 miles from his village.

Films by Mark Lewis. This Australian director specialized in documentaries about animals—specifically about people’s relationships with them. All are shot in a highly creative and dramatic way, with the interview subjects reenacting their experiences, with often-hilarious results. I recommend Cane Toads : An Unnatural History and Rats .

Films by John and Faith Hubley. This husband-and-wife team were central to American independent animation. John worked for Disney but quit out of creative frustration; he and his wife promised each other they would make at least one creative project together per year, and ended up winning multiple Oscars for their animated shorts. There are many I haven’t seen yet, but I recommend The Hole (Oscar-winner), Urbanissimo , The Tender Game .

Thomas V. Mirus is Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org, hosts The Catholic Culture Podcast, and co-hosts Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. See full bio.

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Ikiru is sublime. Have you yet seen "Living" the "reamke" of this story? It too is masterful but in a different key.