CENTRAL DO BRASIL (Central Station, 1998) **1/2 There are a lot of landmines involved in making a film about the sort of people that "normal" people don't care about. First of all, if they aren't interesting in real life, why should we be interested in them on film? Aren't films supposed to be entertaining, rather than dreary and dull? So most directors make things worse by trying to find something entertaining about the tale, and accentuate it. At that point they have a film that's neither fun nor realistic. Walter Salles doesn't make that mistake: he assumes that he's doing something riveting (even though he knows that by industry standards he's not) and, even more importantly, he communicates his confidence in that assumption. It's the simple story of a recently become orphan, and an ambivalent old woman whose conscience blows back and forth between helping him or using him. It's fairly apparent that there can be no happy ending: Rio de Janeiro's too tough for anyone, much less either of these two, especially together. So it's up to the actors, for whatever audience doesn't sneak off to watch the latest teen flick, and both Fernanda Montenegro and Vinícius de Oliveira are absolutely flawless. Maybe it's not the most inspiring film; we're all too afraid of reality to empathize much with the characters, and we're all convinced that we do what we can to help such people by paying taxes (that are more likely to go towards blowing them up), or dropping a few coins in some guy's hat (if only everyone would be so generous)), or whatever. So why wallow in it, right? If nothing else, that's the contribution that directors like Salles are making: they allow us the illusion of engaging in difficult lives, without the difficulties involved in actually doing so. The credits role, and now we have to decide where to go for a drink or a bite to eat. Mea culpa.
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