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Central Station
 
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Central Station

Fernanda Montenegro (Actor), Vinícius de Oliveira (Actor), Walter Salles (Director) | Format: DVD
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)

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In the opening scenes of Central Station, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid--in longshot--underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertäo, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) mixes magic with realism in his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central Station is primarily fueled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judy Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles's trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. --Kathleen Murphy

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
One of the best foreign films of all time! July 8 2003
Format:DVD
This is like the only third foreign movie I've seen and from then on, I became a foreign film addict. Movies this good should be released not only in its home country but everywhere in the world. I've been reading the reviews of a lot of people for this movie and I find mixed reactions but generally, everyone loved the great performances, wonderful story, perfect setting and the mood it created to achieve that melodramatic audience appeal.

It is a very simple yet very touching movie. It will definitely touch that soft spot in your heart. I am proud to have a Central Station DVD on my collection. This is definitely one of the best and very much recommended film.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A cinematic classic from Brasil May 6 2003
Format:DVD
I have forced friends and family to watch this film with me, people who offered varying degress of resistance to foreign film, road movies, and the consensus was unanimous: Centro do Brasil (Central Station) is a film of quiet power, rare genius and sensitivity. Ideologically, it falls midway between the extremes of the violent, gritty "Cidade de Deus" and the warm, romantic "Bossa Nova," adding to these portraits its particular view of Brasilian daily life. Fernanda Montenegro (Dora) and Vinícius de Oliveira (Josué) give completely honest and believable performances, and it is these performances, and the wonderful screenplay, which keeps the subject from deteriorating into melodrama. Each character has, for different reasons, been embittered and hardened by experience, and the film documents their emotional, intellectual, and spiritual breakthroughs in getting past their emotional crises. The characters' existential journey is mirrored in the geographical journey across Brasil, from gorgeous but scary Rio de Janeiro to rural central Brasil. There is no convenient "fix" to the characters' problems, and even religion is offered as but one possible diversion from life's problems, not a permanent solution to them. This makes sense, given the fact that Brasil's 185 million people are nominally Catholic but many are forced by poverty and other circumstances to live a more secular and pragmatic life (including the traditions and rituals of umbanda, candomble, Kardecism, etc). Ultimately, the film offers a message of hope that, if you can't completely turn your life around, you can at least try to change the things which prevent you from going any further. I find that perspective a lot more realistic, less patronizing than, say, a typical Hollywood "on the road" drama, where all the characters find their respective epiphanies en route to their destination, just before the final credits roll.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Look, the Pity of it... April 25 2003
By BLee
Format:DVD
A very touching story. So some say it's a real story. It does look like so judging from the realistic way it is presented, it's very convincing indeed.

From this movie one would be able to see a cross section of the life in Brazil. Their passionate religous faith,their helplessness, their economy, their outlook, various towns and everything...

Often one's fate is predestinated and hinged upon the change of a thought of somebody else no matter he/she is related to to you or not. Here the boy's fate turned at least twice. First he dropped the toy on the roadway which his mother decided to and subsequently bought to him causing her a fatal traffic accident. And then it turned upon the retired teacher who sold him and later changed her mind and decided to rescue him from the kids-monger and brought him back to his father who had earlier abandoned him living with another woman and died before meeting this boy...

But this is not exactly a tragedy. There was the meldramatic episode of the retired teacher with the truck driver. Even the relation between this retired teacher and the boy are so full of humantiy and tenderness.

Highly recommended.

-

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Most recent customer reviews
Review of DVD - Central Station
I have received the DVD in perfect condition and the delivery was right on time. I would recommend this supplier.
Published 4 months ago by Po
In a nutshell, recommended...
Just in case you are in a hurry, I will begin this review in a non-traditional way, that is by the end. Read more
Published on Jan 8 2007 by M. B. Alcat
Touching!!!A MUST watch!!!!!*
I feel it so warm and touched throughout the whole plot.I'd like to emphasize that Central Station is really a simple but DEEP movie!! Read more
Published on May 23 2004 by noreeca
Masterpiece
An emotionally spellbinding masterpiece is what we have here. Everything about this film adds up to give us a film that is beyond your average tear jerker, it is an unforgettable... Read more
Published on Mar 9 2004 by S. Sommerville
FORGET THE COMMENTARY
This film was purchased for a Brazilian studies class. The film is ruined by the commentaries throughout the entire movie. Read more
Published on Feb 17 2004
Very worthy contribution to the roadtrip genre
I had always thought that U.S. writers would stick to the roadtrip (e.g., "On the Road") and the Latins would stick to magical realism. Read more
Published on Feb 2 2004 by Hinkle Goldfarb
How can anyone hate this movie
Some reviewers have labeled this film "banal," but it is apparent they don't understand the meaning of the word. Read more
Published on Jan 21 2004
Big Time Banality
From the reviews this film has garnered, I went into it anticipating some first rate film making and acting. Read more
Published on Sep 23 2003 by Bruce Kendall
Too cliche
Montenegro is great in this movie. That said the movie is too cliche with the boudn between an adult and a little kid. Read more
Published on April 23 2003 by chicoer2003
Brazilian's Greatest Female Actress at her Peak
This is a film of contrasts. From Rio de Janeiro's Metropolis-like urban hell to Brasil's Nordeste - a barren place of barren and huge landscapes and unmittigated Faith. Read more
Published on Oct 4 2002 by Nandinha
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