I can’t join in with the prevailing opinion that Walter Salles’s Central Station is on par with early De Sica – I love early De Sica too much. But in this otherwise rather schematic swatch of social catharsis, Brazil’s Fernanda Montenegro gives the best performance by an actress I’ve seen all year. De Sica might not have made this movie, but he would have recognized in her bitter, beseeching portrayal a kindred character.