The Station Agent

Rating:
Summary: Letting It Unfold
Review: It becomes apparent early on that "The Station Agent" is not your usual film. It sets a slow, methodical pace which will not satisfy the typical multi-plex audiences. It presents characters without offering a lot of explanation for them. You are required to pay attention to how they act in order to find out who they are. There are no long, informative, tell-all speeches by these people, the kind that you would find in a more mainstream movie. And, somewhat surprisingly, there is no real resolution to the three main lives that the film touches upon. And yet, somehow it all works.

Peter Dinklage plays the lead role in "The Station Agent". He is Finbar McBride, a solitary man who works with an older black gentleman named Henry in a Main Street-style shop which sells & repairs model trains. Henry and Fin are train enthusiasts, and even watch home movies other people have made that are nothing more than different camera angles of trains. When Henry dies suddenly, Fin discovers that his friend has bequeathed him a half-acre of land in Newfoundland, New Jersey. On the land is an old train depot, where the station agent used to reside. Here is where Fin decides he will go and live, and it is where the main point of the movie begins.

Across the tracks from the train depot is Joe, an obviously lonely young man who runs a portable coffee and hot dog stand. He quickly rushes to befriend Fin, but finds it at first to be of some difficulty. Fin, you see, is a dwarf, and has put up a protective barrier to shield himself from what can often be an unkind and unthinking humanity. When Joe invites Fin to the local tavern, the dwarf refuses. We later find out why. Though Fin tries to separate himself from people, he is only human, and therefore becomes resentful of his home-made prison of loneliness. This leads to him eventually accepting Joe's goofy version of friendship. The third lonely person added to the mix is Olivia, a forty-something woman who has recently lost her child through death, and her husband through mutual separation. Olivia is not only lonely, but also fragile and unstable. Together these three lost souls attempt to bolster each other through simple companionship. Sometimes it works, while other times it doesn't. Add into the mix two more lonely people: a young librarian woman who takes a physical interest in Fin, and a little girl named Cleo who likes to hang out with Fin and old abandoned trains more than with kids her own age, and you have a movie full of disheartened, dejected characters.

But "The Station Agent" is certainly a unique film. It moves at its own pace, and tells its story through what the characters say, rather than what they explain. Have you ever noticed that, in most movies, if a character has some deep, dark pain in their life, there will inevitably come a scene (or perhaps multiple scenes) where the character will unload and explain everything that's going on with them? They will provide life history, present angst, and maybe even future worries. Not so with "The Station Agent". You'd just better pay attention to what these people say, as unimportant as it sometimes may sound, and as infrequently as it may come, if you want to grasp what's really going on with them and what their roles are within the film. This is not a movie for relaxing and letting your mind glaze over. This is a movie which treats the viewer with respect. It assumes you are intelligent and alert. And I appreciate that. My only real complaint with the film is that there are still some unanswered questions that the writer/director could have taken some time in answering, although I suppose they are not super-vital to the story.

The acting job by the three leads - Peter Dinklage as Fin, Bobby Cannavale as Joe, and Patricia Clarkson as Olivia, is realistic and superb. These definitely feel like characters, not actors. If the locations used for Newfoundland, New Jersey are not real, then they sure did a good job making them seem as if they were. There is such a flavor of truth to the whole film that it can only help propel it to a higher level of entertainment. And a special mention should be made for Stephen Trask, incidental music composer. His work here fits in perfectly with the mood of the movie.

"The Station Agent" is not your typical movie-going experience, but that is a good thing. It is a slowly unfolding film about lonely people who find each other and do what they can to help themselves through the kind of companionship that only humanity can provide, in its unique, quirky way. It doesn't explain, it simply 'is'. The characters seem like real people, and we find that they are easy to relate to. Already you have the pieces in place for a great movie. And "The Station Agent" does not fail in that regard.

Rating:
Summary: Not Only Genuine & True But Emotionally Moving
Review: MOVIE: This film is probably the best film I've ever seen. With movies these days it is so difficult to find a true film. A film not a movie. The Station Agent tells the story of a dwarf named Finn. He worked at a train model store and was close friends with the owner. When the owner dies he leaves Finn his old station house, and with no home or family this is where Finn lives. All his life Finn has to deal with the bitter remarks people make at him and the beating of society has left Finn isolated and alone. All he wants is to be left alone. While at his new found house in Newfoundland, New Jersey, catchy symbolism isn't it, he meets a hot dog stand guy named Joe and a middle aged woman named Olivia. They slowly become friends and share the fact that each of them are struggling with their lives in some aspect. Each of them discover that being with each other is a lot more rewarding than being isolated from the brutality of life. The movie is also filled with rich symbolism and each shot is framed so much meaning. The town as mentioned before is called Newfoundland, New Jersey. Finn being a train enthusiast works out for the symbolism especially the scenes of him walking the train tracks. Trains have a structured path, only one way to go. Finn has limited himself to this "one path" way of life and with his new found friendships he starts to create his own path instead of letting society move him. This film is not only a comic gem but it is emotionally powerful. First time writer and director Tom McCarthy has proven himself to be a great filmmaker with his first film, a rarity now days. This small film has a such a powerful effect on the audience that you will be thinking about it long after you see it. After I watched it on DVD I said the same thing to myself that I said after seeing it in the theater, "man, what a great film". People who limit themselves to movies like The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars have my pity because they will never know what they are missing. I guarantee that this movie will move you emotionally and will be an experience you will never forget.

VIDEO: The DVD has a very decent picture, and in order to get the full effect of the vibrant shots and the train track scenes it is best to watch on a HD Widescreen tv. Even though the acting is what made the film, the cinematography was also exceptional.

AUDIO: Basic 5.1 Audio mix that does the job. This is a character-based movie and really doesn't require a heavy based sound mix.

PACKAGING / EXTRAS: The DVD comes in the standard Armaray case with no insert. The only extras are deleted scenes and a commentary by McCarthy. Miramax has also thrown in a bunch of trailers for their other movies like Cold Mountain, City of God, The Barbarian Invasions, and some others. Being a small movie that probably many average movie goers never heard of, it was expected to have a bare-bones release on DVD. I really feel bad that movies like this never get to see a wide release or a large amount of interest because these are the movies that film was invented for.

MOVIE SCORE: (* * * * *). . . and then some
DVD SCORE: (7 / 10)

Rating:
Summary: Speechless in Albuquerque
Review: My title reflects a certain difficulty in trying to characterize this warm and humane film. The characters are composites of everman/woman. Their life stories are really illuminated on two levels, verbal and gratefully non-verbal.

Where the dialogue pauses is a testament to some fine directing in my beginners mind. Being my first attempt at a "re-view" is very stimulating and demands I pay attention to the wonderful details of life which can be so easily blurred in the overload of "modern life". I plan to get a copy of the DVD when available to be reminded of the message(s) that fill this gem. Thanks JD

Rating:
Summary: Superb character study/indie film
Review: Not many films have a dwarf as the main character--especially one whose fascination is trains. Finnbar McBride, played by actor Peter Dinklage, is such a man and has immersed himself in trains as, we understand with the progression of this great film, a retreat from the world of normal humans who too often delight in ridiculing him for his stature.

If this were a film characterized by stereotype and lack of imagination and intelligence, Finn would emerge as the valiant hero, fighting the odds that Mother Nature dealt him. But, luckily, it is not. Filmmaker (writer-director) Thomas McCarthy is much too smart and sensitive to do something stupid like that. Finn is very quiet, but has his weaknesses, shown in a great scene at the local bar in tiny Newfoundland, New Jersey where Finn's been left an old train depot by his recently deceased former boss.

In the bar, he proceeds to get truly drunk and confronts the inner demon of his enormous frustration at his dwarfism by standing on the bar and taunting everyone else to look at him. He's a fully rounded person--he shuns human company but when it's foisted upon him--by garrulous young Joe, the hot dog vendor, and by Olivia, the klutzy but beautiful local artist--he does respond. He does laugh with his new friends, he does understand that others may have pain, maybe even deeper than his.

This is one of the year's best films because it dares to raise a true, deep, and honest voice amidst the glitzy schlock that Hollywood still cranks out to rake in the millions. This is a film that should not be missed for its depth of characterization and emotion, its courage, its honesty, sensitivity, and above all, its deep understanding of what being human really means.

Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: Originally, when I saw the premise for this movie, I was a bit discouraged. Seeing that a small person would be among the cast, I felt that it would be a tired and clichéd look at "discrimination" and the "cruelty of man". Ooo...look how mean they are him, I hate people, that kind of after school special vibe. Luckily for me, I was totally wrong. The Station Agent is far from clichéd, as it offers a comical but heart felt look at human relationships that almost everyone can share. By using small statured actor Peter Dinklage, director Thomas McCarthy offers an intense look at the role of friends and the downsides of even the closest well intentioned relationships.

Fin is a small hermit who was recently bequeathed an abandoned train station house by a deceased business partner. Deciding that it would be best for him to set up shop there, the lonely train fanatic eases into a life of quiet locomotive fixation. This din is interrupted by the loudmouth and aggressive operator of a nearby snack truck, Joe, who is just as lonely as Fin and pleads, rather pathetically, to be Fin's buddy. The two are an odd couple, and are made even stranger when joined by middle aged artist Olivia, a struggling soul who is dealing with a nightmarish divorce. They all meet kind of coincidentally, and they form some form of desperate bond. The comedic pacing is set by Joe, who is a great character. As fate would have it, Olivia begins to face challenges that suck everyone of her new friends in, forcing Fin to abandon the lifestyle he once took refuge in and to venture out a bit, with both negative and positive results.

The Station Agent is a quality film because of several reasons. The story is simple but heartwarming, lacking any kind of smarmy nonsense but relying on comforting realism. The characters are well drawn, and the disparate cast carries them well. One of the best parts of the movie was the background, which may not be enjoyed by those residing outside the Garden State. Long known for its sprawling suburban blight and nuclear power plants, I like how the movie takes a look at the more scenic sections of the state. A few things bothered me, especially the movies incessant and boring reliance on coincidence to move the plot along. Some story points were reaches, but all in all, The Station Agent is a very enjoyable experience.

Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: Originally, when I saw the premise for this movie, I was a bit discouraged. Seeing that a small person would be among the cast, I felt that it would be a tired and clichéd look at "discrimination" and the "cruelty of man". Ooo...look how mean they are him, I hate people, that kind of after school special vibe. Luckily for me, I was totally wrong. The Station Agent is far from clichéd, as it offers a comical but heart felt look at human relationships that almost everyone can share. By using small statured actor Peter Dinklage, director Thomas McCarthy offers an intense look at the role of friends and the downsides of even the closest well intentioned relationships.

Fin is a small hermit who was recently bequeathed an abandoned train station house by a deceased business partner. Deciding that it would be best for him to set up shop there, the lonely train fanatic eases into a life of quiet locomotive fixation. This din is interrupted by the loudmouth and aggressive operator of a nearby snack truck, Joe, who is just as lonely as Fin and pleads, rather pathetically, to be Fin's buddy. The two are an odd couple, and are made even stranger when joined by middle aged artist Olivia, a struggling soul who is dealing with a nightmarish divorce. They all meet kind of coincidentally, and they form some form of desperate bond. The comedic pacing is set by Joe, who is a great character. As fate would have it, Olivia begins to face challenges that suck everyone of her new friends in, forcing Fin to abandon the lifestyle he once took refuge in and to venture out a bit, with both negative and positive results.

The Station Agent is a quality film because of several reasons. The story is simple but heartwarming, lacking any kind of smarmy nonsense but relying on comforting realism. The characters are well drawn, and the disparate cast carries them well. One of the best parts of the movie was the background, which may not be enjoyed by those residing outside the Garden State. Long known for its sprawling suburban blight and nuclear power plants, I like how the movie takes a look at the more scenic sections of the state. A few things bothered me, especially the movies incessant and boring reliance on coincidence to move the plot along. Some story points were reaches, but all in all, The Station Agent is a very enjoyable experience.

Rating:
Summary: Not a shlocky Hollywood drama - see this movie!
Review: Several lonely characters in a small non descript New Jersey town do not make for a major Hollywood drama. But this "small movie" is very human and manages to sustain your involvement without the usual gratuitous doses of fight or flesh. Finnbar, the main character, is a midget who inherits a disused smalltown train station when his boss dies. He converts this to his new home next to the tracks where trains no longer stop. Initially trying to shun contact with others, his life becomes slowly woven with other characters in this little New Jersey town of Newfoundland. There is Joe, the hot dog/coffee stand vendor, who continually receives calls from his ill father; Olivia, the artist haunted by the accidental death of her young son, which has estranged her from the husband from whom she has now seperated; a pretty young local town librarian who admires the midget's striking facial features; and a young black schoogirl who keeps popping in and out from seemingly nowhere, seeking to get Finnbar to overcome his reluctance to make a presentation on trains to her grade school class. What binds Finnbarr to Joe and Olivia is their common sense of intense loneliness, for which the abandoned silent tracks provide an unmistkable metaphor. Several superbly shot scenes and some wonderful dialogue are what keeps you hooked throughout this movie in addition to some very fine acting. You almost begin feeling after a while that you are next to the same railway tracks or in the same living room as the three main characters. I only wished, when it was over, that this type of movie were more the norm. Please see this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Hollywood Fare
Review: The characters in this movie are brilliantly portrayed, creating a sweet tedium in waiting and hoping that they will do or say something good. This is rather than being an artsy drag. If you are looking for a fast, flashy movie...then just keep moving. If you have the patience for it, though, "The Station Agent" can be a worthwhile and restful way to pass an afternoon off from work.

Rating:
Summary: Joizy as a setting for quirky?
Review: THE STATION AGENT is a film not easily categorized: part comedy, part drama, entirely quirky.

Peter Dinklage is Fin McBride, a train lover who works in a model railroad shop in Hoboken. One day, his aging boss drops dead, bequeathing to his employee an abandoned train depot in the backwater, New Jersey burg of Newfoundland. Fin simply walks to his new holding by following the tracks. He's never learned to drive, you see, because he's only 4'5" tall - born with dwarfism.

Once established in his odd residence, Fin's desire is for asocial solitude - a response to the frequent ridicule visited upon him by humans of normal stature. To achieve this self-protective shell, Fin verges on being antisocial. But, to his dismay, he soon finds that other needy humans gravitate to him. First, there's the lonely and chatty hot-dog vendor, Joe (Bobby Cannavale), who's only in town to run his ailing Dad's roach coach, which he parks every day outside Fin's front door. Then there's the artist Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), separated from her husband by the death of her young son a couple years previous, an event for which she bitterly blames herself, the kid having tumbled from some monkey bars in the brief moment that she wasn't looking. Finally, there's the young and pretty local librarian (Michelle Williams), shabbily treated by her jerk boyfriend, and a young Black girl (Raven Goodwin), who pops in and out of the story from nowhere and whose chief purpose in the plot is to persuade Fin to talk to her school classmates about trains, something he's loathe to do because children have been major tormentors.

I can't help but think there may have been one or two too many characters in THE STATION AGENT. At one point, Olivia's need for social isolation exceeds that of Fin's. The two revolve around each other like a double-star, and the changes each effects in the other is the true core of the story. The persona of Joe is nonetheless endearing, although understanding his role as an ostensible adult may be hard to picture unless one sees him as essentially a little kid at heart.

Early on, there's an amusing sequence involving film shot by a "train chaser", which gives new meaning to the concept of "home movies" and compels the real-life audience to marvel at the eccentricity of some obsessions.

Thirty minutes before viewing this film, I'd finished watching THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS, an emotionally intense film on a profound subject. THE STATION AGENT, a comparative lightweight in content, perhaps suffers in its close proximity to the former. However, the latter does illustrate some truths; it's difficult for Man, an inherently social animal, to become an island, and that same Man can be thoughtlessly cruel towards the physically challenged.

Shot in a mere 20 days in rural NJ, THE STATION AGENT is a beguiling, well-acted, lushly photographed film worth a look if you can find it in the local art house to which its release will likely be exiled. Interestingly enough, the late 19th century train depot had been totally refurbished, and had to be re-dilapidated, so to speak, for the needs of the production.

Note: This film was seen at a pre-release screening sponsored by the distributor, Miramax.

Rating:
Summary: A Simple and Simply Wonderful Film
Review: THE STATION AGENT is a miniature masterpiece. Director Tom McCarthy has achieved on a small budget, rapid sequence filming, and no frills media use, a film that proves that this art form is alive and well right here in the US. The story is simple but cogent: Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a dwarf who has been working as a model train maker for an African American store owner Henry Styles (Paul Benjamin), one of the few people that treats him without prejudice. Their relationship is gentle but supportive. Henry literally drops dead and Fin discovers he is the sole heir in Henry's will: Fin now owns a dilapidated train depot in Newfoundland, NJ. Having nowhere else to go, Fin moves into his new home, seeking solitude from the world of ignorantly derisive people. But parked in front of his space is a Hot Dog and Coffee wagon operated by garrulous Joe (Bobby Cannavale), a warmly friendly guy who wants to hangout with Fin. Fin also encounters the slightly flighty artist Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) who after two 'accidental encounters' on the highway seeks out Fin also. In his attempt to foster anonymity Fin avoids these new would-be friends, spends time at the local library reading about his passion - trains - and encounters the fragile librarian Emily (Michelle Williams) who also finds him strangely attractive. Another "invader" into his space is a young African American girl Cleo (Raven Goodwin) who simply wants to understand Fin's life and plight. The story is simply the communication that grows among these disparate people, each needy, each with occult compassion trying to surface. This interaction is all there is to the 88-minute film, but in its brevity and spare dialogue we are drawn into the lives of these fragile folk to the point that saying goodbye to them at the end is heartrending. What a cast! Dinklage, Clarkson, Cannavale, and Williams are as fine as they come, creating as much character with body language and lingering looks than with verbiage. An absolutely first rate film in every aspect.