Central Station

The 1998 film, Central Station is about Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) a cynical and selfish former schoolteacher who earns a living writing letters for the illiterate in Rio de Janeiro's busy railroad station. Viewing most of her clients as trash, she never even mails their letters. Nine-year-old Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira) comes to the station with his mother, who has Dora write a letter to his father in a faraway town. Then his mother is struck and killed by a bus. With nowhere to go, Josue sleeps in the station. Dora reluctantly takes him to her small apartment where he finds the letter with his father's address. But the next day, she sells him to some people who claim to be in the adoption business. She buys a new television with the money she recieved by selling Josue. Her friend Irene is horrified at her selfishness. The boy, she warns, is in real danger of being killed for his organ parts. Dora decides to rescue him and return him to his father. The two get on a bus and flee the city. Central Station depicts the slow opening of Dora's heart as she and Josue travel across Brazil. After she tries to abandon him once, and he loses all the money she gave him, they are picked up by a friendly truck driver. Dora becomes attracted to the man from her loneliness, but he rushes off once he realizes she is interested in him physically. The miraculous growing of Dora's heart occurs when they end up in the middle of a rural religious pilgrimage. Once again, the old woman becomes a letter writer, but now she approaches it differently. This movie is so powerful as it shows how one little boy could change everything that Dora believes in. Being a a drunk like the kids father, she knows that the chances he will come back are slim to none. She develops a bond with the boy that makes you believe she could mother him. Once they meet up with the boys brothers she realizes that the best thing for him is to stay with his brothers. She leaves the boy with a note and a little picture thing, the note saying whenever you need me just look through the picture view finder. Once the boy reads the letter he runs forever symbolizing him chasing after her. When he realizes that she's gone he stops and looks through the view finder and smiles. The movie is not that long so for a slow story it is the perfect amount of time. I personally loved the movie, kept me wondering if they will ever see the boys father, and if at the end Josue would go live with Dora. Both of those things didn't happen so it made for an interesting ending.