Fernanda Montenegro

In Central Station (1998), Fernanda Montenegro does not soften Dora's quarrels with Josué just because we might prefer them to get along. Dora, a former teacher who writes letters for others, could easily become the familiar screen grump waiting for a child to improve her. Montenegro makes that expectation uncomfortable. We laughed at her sharpness with the boy, then felt uneasy about how quickly we had taken her side. The selfishness remains visible while she is being funny, and there is no good reason to excuse it.

Montenegro's film work had developed alongside a long career in Brazilian theatre and television. She played Madame Carlota in Hour of the Star (1985), well before Central Station brought her wider international attention. Her subsequent work remained largely in Brazilian productions, including O Auto da Compadecida (2000), in which she plays the compassionate divine figure Compadecida. That part offers a clear contrast with Dora, though older women facing hardship or difficult moral choices recur in her work.

Walter Salles gives Montenegro the time her acting needs in Central Station. Vinícius de Oliveira plays Josué as stubborn rather than obligingly sweet, so their irritation carries as much weight as their need for company. Editors Isabelle Rathery and Felipe Lacerda let the relationship change gradually, without hurrying the pair towards affection. The music by Antonio Pinto and Jaques Morelenbaum is less helpful: it sometimes encourages tenderness so insistently that it distracts from what Montenegro's face has already conveyed.

Her selective later film work includes Invisible Life (2019) and I'm Still Here (2024), a reunion with Salles. For a first encounter, we would still choose Central Station, where there is time to watch a difficult character change without becoming conveniently agreeable. Give Dora time, but do not expect Montenegro to apologise for her.