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Central Station (Central do Brasil) (1998)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 3

Director Salles transcends road-movie clichés and crafts a film that is as moving as it is universal.

92

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 1

Director Salles transcends road-movie clichés and crafts a film that is as moving as it is universal.

audience

93

liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 12,662

My Rating

Movie Info

Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) directed this Brazilian-French road movie tracing the travels and travails of a young boy and an aging woman across the Brazilian landscape. In Rio de Janeiro's central railroad station, callous Dora (leading Brazilian stage/screen actress Fernanda Montenegro) works at a stand where she writes letters for a parade of poor and illiterate. Some of these remain undelivered because she chooses not to mail all of the letters. One of her

Jul 13, 1999

Sony Classics

Cast

All Critics (60) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (3) | DVD (4)

As beautiful as it is wrenching.

February 14, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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Salles provides a textbook example of how to toy with our emotions, how to involve and move us, without necessarily condescending to us or insulting us.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
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Salles directs simply and watchfully, with an eye that seems to penetrate all the characters who are encountered on Dora's and Josue's journey.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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Central Station is both literate and emotionally-powerful -- an increasingly rare combination.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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What gives the film its strength is that cutting away the first layer only reveals more levels of toughness; it takes time to discover the pure soul beneath.

January 1, 2000 Comment
Film.com
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The movie's success rests largely on the shoulders of Fernanda Montenegro, an actress who successfully defeats any temptation to allow sentimentality to wreck her relationship with the child.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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What separates and elevates Walter Salles' film above the familiar neo-realist type of melodrama is the stylized visual style and Fernanda Montengero's stunning performance.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

...a road movie of uncommon texture and grit during which the mismatched couple, each initially defensive and guarded, bond with each other.

January 23, 2003 Full Review | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

'Central do Brasil' tem a simplicidade dos grandes filmes.

May 31, 2002 Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | Comment
Cinema em Cena

An orphan boy tenderizes the heart of a cynical woman who finally realizes her kinship with others. This is a deeply spiritual film.

March 3, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Central Station (Central do Brasil)

Central Station is of a tale of sorrow that brought two strangers together to embark on an uncertain journey. Sophisticated cinematography and lush musical score. Metaphor-rich, heavy, moving, and very powerful that is surely to deliver a pinch in the heart.

September 10, 2011
Jan Marc Macababayao

Super Reviewer

certainly it's a story we've seen before: cranky person saddled with kid learns compassion and reconnects with humanity. what keeps the viewer engaged is the wonderful performance of fernanda montenegro, always pulling it back from the brink of sentimentality, and the lovingly photographed brazilian countryside

January 12, 2009
rubystevens
Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Central Station (Central Do Brazil) (UK)
  • Central do Brasil (FR)
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