The Station Agent

November 4, 2006

We've had this movie for the last month, always putting off watching it for one reason or another. It is a very understated movie, with much of the action never commented on directly in the movie, but left up for the viewer to figure out. The plot is simple: Finbar McBride is a dwarf who loses his job when his best friend and boss suddenly dies, leaving him with a train depot in his will. Moving out to the small town where the depot is, all he wants to do is be left alone, but a combination of the Joe, the local Cuban hot dog vendor, and Olivia, a frazzled young mother who is grieving for the loss of her son, forces him to confront his new community, just as they are forced to confront him. Much of the humor comes from Joe, who forces himself into Fin's life, as well as the attempts by Olivia to try to make up for her first impression on Fin.

What's best about this movie is that it gives the actor who plays Fin the ability to show the viewer what it must feel like to be a dwarf, the constant stares and rude comments. But his portrayal isn't meant to invoke sympathy so much as understanding, an understanding that he's come to accept that as his fate, just as much as anyone with any sensitivity should decry it.

There's not a conclusion, per se, but there is a resolution, one that affirms the lives of the characters in the story inasmuch as you can see that they learned something from each other. It's like a small version (no pun intended) of The Breakfast Club or The Big Chill, and I'd recommend it.

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1 Comments

By J on November 5, 2006 9:02 PM

What Glen forgot to mention was the number of times this movie was laugh-out-loud funny. Not in a way that makes fun of overdone stereotypes but a general mirth in people's common foibles (the kind of silly personality traits you love in your friends) and in life's coincidences that you just have to find funny. Peter Dinklage is just great in this role and I hope he gets more serious roles like this in the future.

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November 4, 2006