Central Station

Central Station is a movie about a young boy and an older woman who go on a journey together to find the boy’s father. This Brazilian film was directed by Walter Salles. The film takes place in Rio and the older woman, Dora, works as a letter writer at the city’s main train station. She spends the day writing letters for people who can’t write themselves and charges them money and even offers to mail them which she never does. One day, a mother and her son, Ana and Josue, come to her to write a letter to their father which she does. However, Josue’s mother gets hits by a bus and dies leaving Josue now without no family.

Dora takes the boy in and sells him for money to a couple who is into human trafficking. Dora’s friend, Irene, convinces her of the wrong she does and Dora steals him back and the two take off to find his father.

Along the way, they meet a truck driver who offers to give them a ride after they missed the bus. Dora takes a liking to him and gets to close making him discomfortable. He leaves them.

Dora trades her watch to get them a ride to Bom Jesus where Josue’s father is supposedly is. Once there, they head to the address where he lives. When they get there, she finds out he sold this house and moved to a new area. Dora and Josue then leave and head over.

When the search comes up empty, Dora tries to get a bus ticket for them to go back home but is told the bus doesn’t come til the morning. A man, Isaias, notices them and introduces himself as the son of the person they are looking for. He invites them to dinner and they go the house where the meet the other brother, Moises. Dora reads a letter that their dad has written to them and in the morning she leaves Josue to live with his half brothers.

The story touches on several themes. One theme is guilt as Dora faces the guilt in selling Josue for money knowing that she has done a terrible wrong. She steals him back and tries to help him find his father to rid herself of the guilt. Another theme of the movie is alcoholism because Josue’s father is an alcoholic and in the movie, he has lost pretty much everything from money to shelter to his family. It shows the consequences of such actions. A final theme in the movie is that the movie focuses primarily on the relationship between Josue and Dora. In the movie, they go from being complete strangers to pretty much like they are family as they search for their father.

Also, the movie touches on some dark themes such as human trafficking and violence where the people take the law into their own hands.

This movie doesn’t focuses much on action. The most action in the film comes in the beginning of the movie when some guy steals from a stand at the train station and is chased down and shot. The movie is about the characters and the director makes sure that is doesn’t stray away from that. The music is subtle and the camera is slow-moving. There are no quick cuts are crazy effects. Also, nothing is the movie is over-the-top. The Cinematography is good such as the scene where Dora is chasing Josue through the crowd of pilgrims who have journeyed to that area to pray. The scene is lit by all the candles and it looks amazing. The script is very well done and the dialogue sound realistic. However, the pacing of the film is its only downfall. It is very slow at times but maybe that is what the director was going for. Maybe he wanted the story to unfold at its own pace and no like it was injected with adrenaline.

In conclusion, Central Station is a very touching film and well-made and definitely is a movie that should be seen at least once.