"Central Station" by Walter Salles

"Central Station" by Walter Salles is a film from 1998. The film stars Fernanda Montenegro as an older woman who works at a station in Rio de Janeiro writing letters for illiterate people. One woman is using Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) to send letters to a man who fathered her nine year old son. Eventually this woman dies in a car accident and Dora takes it on herself to bring the boy, Josue, on a trip to find his father.

Dora and Josue do not get along. They constantly fight and make fun of each other. Dora clearly does not know how to be a good guardian. On the bus the initial time, she has an open bottle of alcohol with her when she falls asleep and Josue gets it. He becomes intoxicated on the bus.



By the first stop, Dora tries to ditch the boy. But Josue, though he doesn't like Dora, feels like he must stick with her and doesn't stay on the bus. Dora decides she will take Josue to his father, but the next problem is she has no more money. They do the best they can together to figure out a way to get there.



At a diner, a truck driver befriends Dora when he sees Josue eyeing his food. As a religious man he takes bitter on them and offers to drive them. Sparks start going between Dora and the truck driver. At one of the stops, Dora flirts with him. He takes it as she is acting like tramp. When Dora goes to freshen up, he leaves them. Now they have the same problem as before, but at least closer to their destination.



They mange to hitchhike and make it. They learn upon arrival that Josue's father was not there anymore. Stranded, Josue gets an idea to make money: Dora writes letters for those who want to write to the Saint they were praising during a festival. They make enough money to buy new clothes and a place to sleep.



Word of where the father moved to reaches them and they venture off together to find him. They arrive, yet again, to find he had left there as well. Josue soon learns that he has two half brothers. Dora decides the best thing to do is to leave him with his brothers so he can have a life with someone who is his family.



The theme of this story is you may never know who you bond with. Dora picked up a random boy and, doing the right thing, trued to reunite him with his father. Though they did not get along at first, they soon connected and were the best people for each other.



This is an excellent film. Once you grasp the plot and the characters you take off when them on their journey. The chemistry between Dora and Josue was fantastic, as well as the plot never dragged. Who wouldn't watch this film and love it?