Central Station

November. 20,1998      
Rating:
8
Trailer Synopsis Cast

An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Fernanda Montenegro as  Isadora "Dora" Teixeira
Vinícius de Oliveira as  Josué Fontenele de Paiva
Marília Pêra as  Irene
Othon Bastos as  César
Otávio Augusto as  Pedrão
Matheus Nachtergaele as  Isaías Paiva
Caio Junqueira as  Moisés Paiva
Stela Freitas as  Yolanda
Sergio Kato as  Dora's Client
Soia Lira as  Ana Fontenele

Similar titles

The Letters
The Letters
Mother Teresa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is considered one of the greatest humanitarians of modern times. Her selfless commitment changed hearts, lives and inspired millions throughout the world. The Letters, as told through personal letters she wrote over the last 40 years of her life, reveal a troubled and vulnerable women who grew to feel an isolation and an abandonment by God.
The Letters 2014
Words and Pictures
Prime Video
Words and Pictures
An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.
Words and Pictures 2014
Language Lessons
Max
Language Lessons
A Spanish teacher and her student develop an unexpected friendship.
Language Lessons 2021
The Edge
Starz
The Edge
The plane carrying wealthy Charles Morse crashes down in the Alaskan wilderness. Together with the two other passengers, photographer Robert and assistant Stephen, Charles devises a plan to help them reach civilization. However, his biggest obstacle might not be the elements, or even the Kodiak bear stalking them -- it could be Robert, whom Charles suspects is having an affair with his wife and would not mind seeing him dead.
The Edge 1997
Election
Prime Video
Election
Tracy Flick is running unopposed for this year’s high school student election. But Jim McAllister has a different plan. Partly to establish a more democratic election, and partly to satisfy some deep personal anger toward Tracy, Jim talks football player Paul Metzler to run for president as well.
Election 1999
Ken Park
Ken Park
Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Ken Park 2002
Coach Carter
Paramount+
Coach Carter
Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.
Coach Carter 2005
Dear Frankie
Paramount+
Dear Frankie
Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day...
Dear Frankie 2004
Derailed
Starz
Derailed
When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, they are forced to turn the tables on him to save their families.
Derailed 2005
Dark Water
Prime Video
Dark Water
Dahlia Williams and her daughter Cecelia move into a rundown apartment on New York's Roosevelt Island. Dahlia is in the midst of divorce proceedings, and the apartment, though near an excellent school for her daughter, is all she can afford. From the time she arrives, there are mysterious occurrences—and there is a constant drip from the ceiling in her daughter's bedroom…
Dark Water 2005

Reviews

Actuakers
1998/11/20

One of my all time favorites.

... more
ShangLuda
1998/11/21

Admirable film.

... more
Bea Swanson
1998/11/22

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

... more
Tobias Burrows
1998/11/23

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

... more
GusF
1998/11/24

Known in English as "Central Station," this is an inconsistent film with a flawed premise. This is the first film in many a year that I watched because I had to rather than because I wanted to as it was assigned viewing for a Law and Film group of which I am a member. It is not the kind of film that I would ordinarily choose to watch as it is rather depressing in spite of its would-be moving moments. The script by Walter Salles can never seem to decide on a tone and, at the end of the day, I didn't care what happened to the characters, which is never a good sign. On the bright side, the film looks great and it was interesting to watch my first film in Portugeuse - and only my second entirely in a language other than English or German - but I wish that my introduction to Brazilian cinema had been more successful.Fernanda Montenegro is very good in the Oscar nominated role of Isadora "Dora" Teixeira and it is a shame that the film could not have been on the same level as her performance. A cynical, bitter retired teacher, she writes letters for illiterate people at the major Rio de Janiero train station Central do Brasil. Half the time, she does not even send the letters, either tearing them up or sticking them in a door which her friend Irene compares to Purgatory. After one of her customers, a woman named Ana Fontenele, is knocked down by a bus, she takes in her son Josué Fontenele de Paiva but it is not out of the goodness of her heart. She sells him to child traffickers for $1,000, which she then uses to buy a new TV. Dora is an intelligent, well-educated, perceptive woman so I find it very hard to believe that it had never occurred to her that he would be killed and his organs would be sold until Irene points it out to her. She then experiences a crisis of conscience and steals him away from the dreadful place where she sent him in the first place. The film is concerned with her supposed redemption but it did not work for me because I don't think that she could be redeemed after that.In order for me to find a character interesting, they have to be either sympathetic or compelling and, unfortunately, Dora was neither one. I don't have a problem with characters doing terrible things if the storyline is gripping or, far less often, if it is able to redeem them. For instance, I was fascinated by Judah Rosenthal's existential moral crisis after he became heavily involved in a murder in "Crimes and Misdemeanors", which I watched only last week, and Michael Corleone's gradual descent into darkness in the first two "Godfather" films is a beautifully told, engrossing story. The problem with this film is that I don't think anything that Dora did or perhaps even could go any way towards redeeming her. She clearly regretted it, which is something, but I think that committing the act was unforgivable and there is no way back from that. I had much the same problem with "The Godfather Part III" actually but that was far from its only flaw.Because of this, I did not find Dora's bond with Josué - who is played by the rather bad child actor Vinícius de Oliveira - very sweet or believable as I was presumably supposed to. Frankly, I could not get the child trafficking thing out of my head for a single second during the film. She warms to him and does admittedly become a better person as the film progresses but it can't erase what happened earlier. She embarks on a trip across Brazil with Josué, albeit trying to abandon him several times along the way, so that he can find his father Jesus, a shiftless drunk who beat his mother while she was pregnant with him. Is this really all the poor child has going for him? He eventually finds his half-brothers, who are nice enough, but it is heavily implied that his father will never return in spite of a letter to the contrary. This is for the best as Josué might be able to actually experience real happiness, something which I certainly didn't while watching this film. Besides Montenagro, Marília Pêra, who sadly died in December, as Irene is the only actor who particularly stood out. Overall, the film hinges on being able to forgive Dora, which is a flawed premise in my view, so it did not do much for me, I'm afraid.

... more
SnoopyStyle
1998/11/25

Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is a petty deceitful selfish old woman who writes letters for illiterate people at the central station in Rio de Janeiro. Josué's mother asks to write a letter trashing the father as she demands he sees his son. She is killed by a bus and Dora is left with the young Josué. She sells him to some child traffickers, but she has second thoughts. She rescues him and takes him on a road trip to see his father.Dora is not a saint and the movie is better for it. She is bitter and struggles with her moral compass. The kid sees this and resists her at first. This is no light comedy, but the growth in their relationship is what's so great about this movie. Fernanda's performance is second to none.

... more
Samuel-Maldonado
1998/11/26

This film is uncommonly powerful, with very dark tones but bursting with hope and love. The main character, a jaded and bitter letter writer working in Brazil's largest train station (Fernanda Montenegro), is suddenly burdened with a kid who eventually wins her over. But unlike the common feel-good comedies with the same setup, Central do Brasil takes the viewer on a sometimes hopeless, openly vulnerable, and powerfully emotional journey. You can really feel the connection between the boy and his new caretaker – you can feel all of her emotions, really, because her acting is just that spectacular. The acting, the camera work, the soundtrack, and the beautifully written story all come together to produce just an amazing movie, well worth watching, that may just jerk a tear from your eye.

... more
Rachel Henderson
1998/11/27

If I heard I was going to watch a movie about a little boy whose mother dies outside a crowded train station and a retired teacher who helps him find the father he never met, I would imagine I would be watching a sweet story unfold about a sad and lonely boy who is comforted and cared for by a loving and kind hearted woman who takes him under her wing in a motherly and heart-warming way. "Central Station" is not a feel-good movie. The retired teacher, Isadora, is neither warm nor motherly and the boy, Josué, is neither receptive or desiring of her help. However, Isadora and Josué still embark on the seemingly hopeless journey in search of a father who may or may not be alive or around. The movie is by no means predictable, as demonstrated in the way that the characters do not personify those which audiences would expect to see in Hollywood movies dealing with similar plots. It is intriguing and captivating to watch how a stubborn and cold Isadora finds herself best friends with an equally stubborn and cold Josué. Rather than their similarities creating a bond, they constantly drive each other away from the other, but in the end they find themselves forever changed by the remarkable friendship that formed between them. The genius of the movie rests in Salles' success in telling a story that is captivating and unpredictable. He is creative and unconventional and the product that results is phenomenal.

... more