The Station Agent (2003)

I taped this little movie late one night on BBC1 a few months ago after a mate of mine recommended it to me, and I finally got around to giving it a going over last night. I had an idea of what it was about but my pre concieved perceptions of it were very wrong. Although a modest budgeted independant movie, it is a lot more digestible and comercial than I had expected it to be.

It is a very gentle and bitter sweet light comedy drama about a very lonely and ostracised Dwarf of whom is left an unused train station in the will of his only friend. Finn heads out to Newfoundland, New Jersey to live in solitude and spend his days trainspotting. While there, he meets young at heart Cuban, hot-dog stand vendor Joe, played brilliantly breezily by Bobby Cannavale, who is running the business while his dad is very ill, and Olivia, a middle aged lady of whom tragically lost her child 2 years earlier and is in the middle of a crumbling relationship with her husband, played to perfection by Patricia Clarkson. The motley crew find solace and comfort with each other and bond through their flaws and struggles with life.

First time director and writer Thomas McCarthy does a superb job at subtly bring together these characters and the world they are in, all the time bringing in enough sweet and delicate humour to keep the movie from ever feeling too heavy thus keeping it a very satisfying experience. A brilliant little cast including the magnificent and stunning Peter Dinklage as Finn, help bring the movie to life and drive it your heart.

A very creditable and harmless movie is even more poignant to me for its bringing to light the life of a dwarf. See as a movie fan, if I think of Dwarfs on film I think either of them being terribly and constantly type cast as Ewoks or little aliens/wizards/talking ducks in George Lucas movies or as bait for a host of terrible and offensive jokes in Austin Powers movies. Here, we really get to see and feel how much crap is thrown at poor harmless Finn every single day, just to and from his way to work, kids laughing and sniggering at him as he passes and shout out comments about snow white and the seven dwarfs, and these scenes that open the movie brought a lump to my throat. It is hard enough struggling through life when you don't have any physical inadequacies and through modern cinema such as Me myself and Irene, we are led to believe that dwarfs and midgets "like" being "humiliated" about their stature, well The Station Agent and Peter Dinklage's deep and heart felt performance confirm that people with dwarfism are very much emoting human beings too.

The Station Agent "A fine and enjoyable first effort for writer, director Thomas McCarthy who brings a lot of heart to this gentle and wonderfully acted light hearted drama" *** 1/2