Central Station Review
by "Kleszczewski, Nicholas" (Nicholas DOT Kleszczewski AT pepsico DOT com)February 25th, 1999
Central Station
Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) sits behind a make-shift desk at Rio+s major train station. She, in her colorful demeanor, offers a service that is unheard of in the States. She writes letters for the illiterate, who pass through, to try to find lost relatives, find love, or search after lost debts.
She+s quirky, she+s elderly, she+s caring. Totally trustworthy, right? Not a chance. Once home, she never sends these letters, saving money on postage, and relishing in the drama contained therein with her neighbor Irene (Marília Pêra).
One of the letters is sent by a young mother with her nine-year old son, looking for their father. Shortly thereafter, she gets hit by a bus, and the son is orphaned. Days go by, and the boy, named Josué, roams around the station, hungry, desperate, and somewhat clueless to his predictament.
Through a series of circumstances too precious to elaborate upon, Dora somehow takes a responsibility in trying to find Josué+s father. This means leaving the security of Rio, traveling to the outskirts of Brazil, where unpaved roads, religious devotees and the poverty-stricken become commonplace.
Films like this remind me as to what I enjoy about some foreign films. It is an opportunity for me to get a fresh breath in another part of the world, so distant from my own. It does so entertainingly, and so heart-wrenchingly. And yet, it+s backdrop is merely that. The focus is on the minute transformation of Dora, of how she learns to love this little kid, without being cloying or sentimental.
The most interesting backdrop is the amount of religious dedication is in the film. Dora being an amoral scam-artist, could care less about the amount of bickering between the candle-lighting of the Catholics versus the bumper-sticker mentality of the Evangelicals. But neither side is trivialized. She even begins to develop an affection for a non-drinking Evangelical, who sees the problems with Dora, if not initially.
Fernanda Montenegro surprisingly got an Oscar nomination for this very delicate performance, but the true marvel is that of Vinicius de Oliveira, who plays Josué. He, like the discoveries of Jérémie Renier (_La Promesse_) and Giorgio Cantarini (_Life is Beautiful_), prove that the true acting discoveries may be outside of the United States. He is a natural, and never once grating. Send a memo to Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Nick Scale (1 to 10): 9
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
