Recently, I bumped into a list of Top 10 Brazilian movies, "City of God" was there but the absence of Golden Palm winner "Black Orpheus" puzzled me. But "Central do Brazil" was there and maybe in the top position, my expectations were high and so was my disappointment.
While there are many things to appreciate in this movie, I couldn't get past that feeling that the screenplay was -yes, that dirty word- manipulative, why should some emotional movies be deemed with that ugly label while others get away with it? That's the nature of the beast.
The film started very well, with a yellowish lighting suggesting the ending of the day, when it's rush hour in the station and the passengers' challenge is to immediately get into the train (the youngest ones gracefully slip through the windows, preventing the older and weaker ones to have a seat), the placed is crowded, noisy, and this is where operates Dora, Fernanda Montenegro as a public writer for illiterate people (a job that exists in many emerging countries). Dora listens and writes: love letters, insults, letters for friends, or for Jesus, people's waste of life is her way of living. How do customers know she'll send the letters? They're simple enough to trust her, she's unscrupled enough to joke about them with her neighbor and friend, a younger celibate played Marilia Pera. When she doesn't tear the letters, she keeps them in a drawer called the Purgatory.
We get it, that's her character-establishing moment, Dora is a disillusioned and bitter woman who faces enough ugliness in the world to afford any professional conscience. But there's a fine line between writing an unlikable character and making such an effort to portray her without any redeeming qualities whatsoever than we can process from the very start the mechanisms of the plot. The more unlikable Dora appears, the more apparent the story arc's starter is and the more obvious that her journey will make her a better person. That we expect something good to happen doesn't ruin the enjoyment but creates an uneasy feeling of fakery, which is certainly not the intended effect of a realistic portrayal of Brazilian society.
Speaking of realism, how about that: a mother comes a second time with her son Josue (Vinicius de Oliveria) asking to rewrite a friendlier letter to her disappeared husband (Dora didn't even send the first letter), Then the mother is hit by a bus. She dies. Dora wasn't remotely shocked, maybe she didn't realize it was the same woman she saw one minute earlier, but then wasn't she surprised when she saw Josue coming back *alone* the next day? Is "Scram!" something you'd say to a boy who just lost his mother? While we're at it, are we to believe that there's no Children Protection organization, that no one cared for the boy, no family? His mother was taken to a hospital and he was left alone stranded in the station for days?
Let's move on. Dora has a change of heart and takes him to her home but only to sell him to an Child Association and get enough money to buy a new TV. If it wasn't for her friend warning her against people that kill children to sell organs (another great depiction of Brazil), Dora would have probably been responsible for a cruel death. Thanks God, Dora's immorality has limits. She's lucky enough to come at time and take Josue back. Apparently her plan was to make diversion by proposing other children... but why would she give real photographs and expose other kids is she knows they're dangerous people? We'll never know, but that doesn't matter since the road movie can finally kick off. After another failed attempt to abandon Josue, the two finally stick together and the bond can be consolidated through the usual ice-melting episodes.. It's an old story of the sweet kid taming the cold heart of an adult (Heidi, Gloria to name these) but the interactions work thanks to the performance of Montenegro, nominated for an Oscar.
Josue is more problematic though. The kid is cute and knows how to deliver cold stares or enthusiastic stares, but I could feel director Walter Salles mentoring him behind. It's all in the body language, when they learn the father isn't in the right house, he has that sad walk with his head down that reads 'sadness for the dummies'; when he's got an idea, his smile is as obvious as the pre-prank grins in "Problem Child"; he knows how to "look" angry or scared. This is not bad acting but excellent pretending, but it never feels natural. And when the acting is fine, we get that overplayed, sad melody that comes at the right time to remind us this is not a comedy we're watching.
Of course, it's impossible not to ignore the journey into some places in Brazil other than Rio and the Carnival: the isolated towns, the religious ceremonials, the housing development and its cardboard houses but it's much difficult to ignore some glaring loose ends in the plot. Besides those I mentioned before: How could the man in the truck not figure that Dora stole the food from the grocery? And how come Dora left Josue without even asking him? Why would she trust her instinct that failed her so many times?
Maybe because she could finally get back to her life but now with the satisfaction of having done the right thing and becoming a good person. Hence her cries and smile at the end. This time, she would send the letters. And I guess Josue's smile at the end is because the 9-year old kid figured all that existential boost and was happy to see the most important person in her life leave him maybe forever. Yes, that makes sense.
The film had noble intentions but ended up splashing into the schmaltz it kept avoiding.
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