Central Station

Composite Score: 87.13

Starring: Fernanda Montenegro, Vinícius de Oliveira, Marília Pêra, Soia Lira, Othon Bastos, Otávio Augusto, Stela Freitas, Matheus Nachtergaele, and Caio Junqueira

Director: Walter Salles

Writers: João Emanuel Carneiro, Marcos Bernstein, and Walter Salles

Genres: Drama, Road, Coming of Age

MPAA Rating: R for language

Box Office: $5.97 million worldwide

My take on Watching This Film:

                Central Station is Walter Salles’s film about a former schoolteacher who works as a letter writer in Rio’s Central Station and the young boy she escorts across the country to find his father after his mother is killed in a car crash. The film stars Fernanda Montenegro and Vinícius de Oliveira as its two leads – Dora Teixeira and Josué Fontenele de Paiva. Their story and the bond they form as they cross the country forms the backbone of Salles’s film about poverty, family, and societal expectations, full of examinations of the interplay between those themes and the ways that we, as humans, do owe something to each other. The film received Oscar nominations for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress, and it is considered one of the best Brazilian films ever made. Montenegro and Oliveira are fantastic as the film’s leads, giving the audience plenty to root for without ever turning their characters into monoliths or caricatures, always keeping the audience appraised of their humanity in the midst of their circumstances, which don’t always feel as ordinary as the film portrays them. Oliveira’s Josué is every bit the troublesome scamp that Dora needs to driver her crazy enough to set out on such a journey, but he’s also lovable enough to seemingly deserve her dedication as well. It is Montenegro as Dora, though, who carries the film on her shoulders, giving a true powerhouse of a performance that fully earns its awards recognition. She plays all of Dora’s complexities and imperfections with a level of authenticity that makes you forget that you’re watching an actress and not just a woman pulled from the streets of Rio give this performance. It is the performances that lend emotional weight to Central Station, and Fernanda Montenegro fully earns the film its spot among the greats with a truly inspired performance that makes the film as great as it is. While some of the individual moments might not feel as relatable as such films often seek to be, the relationships and humanity at the heart of the film are undeniably real. Currently, this film can be bought on Amazon or you can seek it out at your local library if you’d like to find it and watch it for yourself.