Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Central Station is a road movie set in Rio where it is a dog eat dog society if you are poor. Dora a retired teacher works in a train station concourse where she writes letters for illiterates and usually does not post them even though she has been paid for this service.Josue is a young boy who has been orphaned since his mother was hit by a bus. He is a wise kid sensing Dora was scamming her mother who paid her to write letters to his father far away.Dora reluctantly takes him in but she has no altruistic reasons for this. She sells him to an adoption agency and uses the money to buy herself a new television set. Her friend tells her that the kids are not adopted, their organs are used for transplants.Maybe it is guilt, she takes him back and they go looking for his father with the little money they have. Dora is still reluctant, along the way she tries to leave him once more but something inside her makes her stick with him.They get to Josue's father's town but things get more complicated which includes meeting half siblings. The film is more about Dora, a selfish woman wrapped up in her world, trying to get by whilst making a buck. The journey stirs her own memories with her father. She realises at the end that Josue needs to be with his family and uses her writing skills to good effect this time.

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.

This story happens in an impoverished area in Brazil. The buzzing, noisy central station is infatuated with people bustling for nothing but life necessities. To put it into more vulgar words, people's life is cheap. It can be seen in this film that a thief is shot dead by the vendor.It is this exact reason that makes this film even moving than, say, if it happens in The United states. When one is living in indecent conditions, one should be given more credit if s/he offers to help others.Isadora is such a woman. She is not a good person in a strict sense. After retirement as a primary school teacher, she makes ends meet by deceit, i.e. helping illiterate people write and send letters but tears up those letters back home. By fate, she is connected with a boy named Josue. Josue's mother, one of Dora's client, is killed in a road accident.After several mental struggles with herself, Dora decides to help Josue find his father according to the letter. On the long way to the kid's father, Dora and Josue's relationship turns better and better and finally they become friends.Shortly after they find the location of Josue's father, it comes the time for them to part from each other. Dora writes a letter to Josue and in this letter Dora asks Josue not to forget her.I think Dora wants to be remembered as she devotes her love to Josue particularly she does not have a happy childhood memory. Her fundamental humanity is awakened during this journey. Yet this selfless help is not a pleasant experience for Dora as she sees how Josue's father and brothers love little Josue which for sure reminds her of those painful childhood memories. Despite all, the awakened humanity impulses her to leave Josue to where he can grow up with love and care. In a sense, she chooses Josue to help finish her unfinished childhood dream for a caring father and family. Loving someone but letting someone fly to better places is a huge sacrifice yet the highest rank of love.Thus, Dora does not want to be forgotten. I remember one line extremely clearly, 'When you grow up and drive the truck one day, do not forget that I am the first one who let you sit behind the wheels.'

In a crowded Brazilian train station, Dora, a retired school teacher, writes letters for the illiterate. She conveys their anger, frustration and longing and is paid in exchange for sending their letters – except she never sends them. She is a hardened, conniving, con artist exploiting the poor uneducated Brazilians that pass through the busy Central station. On a particularly busy day she meets Josué and his mother Ana. After a freak accident Dora becomes responsible for Josué and they trek across Brazil in search of Josué's father. Central Station is a heart warming film with a lot of depth that isn't evident the first time you watch it. There is a lot of religious symbolism that could act as a subplot throughout the second half of the film. This is a movie that can be enjoyed whether you see both story lines or only one. The acting is superb and it is a movie that I would recommend to anyone.