Central Station

Released 1998
Stars Fernanda Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira, Marilia Pera, Soia Lira
Directed by Walter Salles

Walter Salles' Central Station is a touching, well-made motion picture whose only real flaw lies in the overfamiliar storyline. This kind of film, which explores the bond between a motherless child and a lonely older woman, has been attempted so frequently that good acting and direction are no longer enough. The script must offer a new and compelling quality, something to draw us into the narrative and make us really care about what happens to the characters. As with recent films such as Kolya and Unhook the Stars, Central Station has what is necessary - the ability to touch the heart.

Another interesting aspect of this picture is that it presents a rare look at non-tourist locales in Brazil. If one of the functions of a motion picture is to take us to new places, Central Station accomplishes that goal admirably. Salles grants us views of densely-populated cities where the houses are little more than shanties, where illiteracy is an epidemic, and where an obsession with religion dominates nearly every facet of life. Nevertheless, as intriguing as the road trip element is, the characters (more than the setting) keep us involved.

The film opens inside a large train station in Rio de Janeiro, where Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is going about her daily job. At a dollar's price, she will write a letter for one of the many illiterate passers-by in the station, then seal it in an addressed envelope. When it comes to mailing the letters, however, Dora is not trustworthy. She stands aloof and uninvolved. Josue is the 9 year-old son of a woman who dictates a letter to Dora. When leaving the station afterwards, the woman is struck by a bus and killed. Josue, with nowhere to go, begins to loiter around the station, acting pugnacious and withdrawn. His plight stirs something in Dora, who brings him home, then sells him to an adoption agency. However, when her best friend notes that Josue is too old to be adopted and that the organization may be a front for organ thieves, Dora kidnaps the boy from the agency, then goes on a journey with him, searching for his father.

Summary by James Berardinelli