The Station Agent

About as offbeat as a film can get without the express involvement of David Lynch, The Station Agent was a smash hit at Sundance last year and has already become something of a cross-over hit. It's not hard to see why as this little film - in which everything moves at a leisurely but thoughtful pace - is a real charmer. It's a gentle, heartfelt study of loneliness, desperation and ultimately, hope. In a smashing performance, Peter Dinklage plays Finbar McBride, a dwarf who works in a New Jersey model train shop. After his best (read: only) pal dies suddenly, leaving him a disused railway station in the New Jersey hinterland, Fin decides to move out there to mourn and find some peace. Soon after he arrives, though, he encounters several fellow stragglers on the fringes of society, including, Cuban-American hotdog salesman Joe (Bobby Cannavale), an eccentric divorcee (Patricia Clarkson) and a little girl Cleo (Raven Goodwin).

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a film about a grieving dwarf wouldn't rank particularly highly when it comes to the entertainment factor. But while Tom McCarthy's impossibly fragile and delicate drama may not have an awful lot in the way of traditional dramatic moments, there's a beauty and ethereal grace about the characters and their predicaments which is becoming. Dinklage supplies a wonderfully rounded performance, articulating the anxieties of his character's emotional constipation through the well worn creases of his face and brooding stance, before his occasional and shocking explosion into anger. He's ably backed up by strong supporting performances - especially from Clarkson - but where The Station Agent really soars is with the tender human complexities within the screenplay which makes it an oddly compelling experience. Go see