The Station Agent
| Year: | 2003 |
| Director: | Thomas McCarthy |
| Writer: | Thomas McCarthy |
| Cast: | Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Kind |
A slight, unassuming and touching film about a loner dwarf (Dinklage) who moves into a ramshackle railside cabin he inherits from his late business partner.
Showing a world-weariness you can imagine a full grown dwarf would feel in the face of a lifetime of stares and jokes, Fin just wants to go on about his life on his own and be left alone.
Two people come into his; screwed up artist Olivia (Clarkson) and partyboy Italian Louis (Kind) who runs a coffee and ice cream stand for his ailing father nearby.
Louis wants to be friends and won't take no for an answer; despite repeated but polite putdowns and responses of 'no thanks' to his many offers of drinks, coffee, lunch etc, he hangs around Fin so much they end up friends by default.
And Olivia, with a lot more to sort out in her life, wants to be close, can't really, and isn't sure what to do about it.
The story follows a fairly simple friends-get-together, friends-fall-out and have-to-discover-each-other-again storyline, but the three main characters are all likeable and the story surrounding Fin is sensitive to the plight he'd undoubtedly have in the modern world but never preachy.
Showing a world-weariness you can imagine a full grown dwarf would feel in the face of a lifetime of stares and jokes, Fin just wants to go on about his life on his own and be left alone.
Two people come into his; screwed up artist Olivia (Clarkson) and partyboy Italian Louis (Kind) who runs a coffee and ice cream stand for his ailing father nearby.
Louis wants to be friends and won't take no for an answer; despite repeated but polite putdowns and responses of 'no thanks' to his many offers of drinks, coffee, lunch etc, he hangs around Fin so much they end up friends by default.
And Olivia, with a lot more to sort out in her life, wants to be close, can't really, and isn't sure what to do about it.
The story follows a fairly simple friends-get-together, friends-fall-out and have-to-discover-each-other-again storyline, but the three main characters are all likeable and the story surrounding Fin is sensitive to the plight he'd undoubtedly have in the modern world but never preachy.