STATION AGENT
Station Agent is a gem of a movie. I loved Tom McCarthy’s ‘The Visitor’ but this is even better.
It’s warm hearted without being mawkish, optimistic yet realistic, well written but far from wordy and features a small cast of characters you believe in and feel for.
The story centres around Fin McBride (Peter Dinklage)- a man whose height of 4′5″ forces liberals to reach for their dictionaries to find out what the most politically correct term is for an undersized person.
Fin himself rejects the word ‘midget’ and seems to prefer ‘dwarf’ but both terms sound derogatory to my ears. Maybe this a partly reflection of how rarely this condition is made visible in mainstream culture.
Ridiculed or treated like a freak he finds comfort in the inanimate world of trains – steam driven things rather than the glossy Amtrak style transport.
When the owner of the model train store he works at dies suddenly he has no job or home but inherits an isolated and disused train depot. Although he wants to be left to himself he finds himself drawn into the lives of the locals.
The difficulties of Fin’s life is central but the film goes beyond being a right-on story of needing to respect physical difference. The real triumph is in showing how Fin bonds with those who , despite being physically ‘normal’ are social misfits like him.
It’s essentially the tale of friendship among outsiders and how isolated people learn to reach out and make connections.
If you’re looking for an intelligent movie that leaves you with a warm glow inside, you should beg, borrow or buy a copy of this immediately.
I absolutely adored “The Station Agent,” which I accidentally discovered on Netflix last fall. It’s one of those quiet movies that rewards intelligence and observance in its viewers. Better still, it’s a film where it’s not about WHAT happens but about HOW things happen. “The Station Agent” makes me sad that Peter Dinklage doesn’t get offered more meaty roles, just typecast parts in movies like “Death at a Funeral.”
You see my “Station Agent” post at: http://mcarteratthemovies.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/netflix-the-station-agent/
It’s nice to *meet* a fellow Tom McCarthy fan. Keep supporting and writing about independent films like this one!
Didn’t I tell you? The great thing is that it would be so easy to make exactly the same film and it be terrible mawkish embarrassment, and yet it never falters.
Love the Mcarterathemovies site – Indy reviews of Indy films – good call! Tom McCarthy rules!
And, yes indeed, Ms Slocombe – you did tell me so, and I didn’t doubt you for a minute ! .