The Station Agent Release Date: October 10, 2003 Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Williams Directed by: Tom McCarthy GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 10/14/03)
I was struck by a peculiar thought while watching actor Peter Dinklage in this picture, the debut feature from writer-director Tom McCarthy: “This guy should be the next James Bond.” Dinklage has a ruggedly handsome face that reflects not just toughness but a severe intelligence; his deep voice is almost as Conneryesque as his jaw, only without the Scottish burr. The man’s a formidable, edgy presence, bristling with danger. The reason it’s odd that I should be casting him as James Bond is that Dinklage is about four and a half feet tall. No Mini-Me jokes please—Dinklage is hardly an angry dwarf in the Howard Stern sense, but anyone who’s seen Tom DiCillo’s inside-indie Living in Oblivion will remember the actor as Tito, who delivers a hysterical dressing-down to hapless director Steve Buscemi about how not even dwarves dream about dwarves. In The Station Agent, Dinklage plays Fin, a train enthusiast who inherits a real, albeit abandoned, train station when his best friend (also his partner in a model train store) unexpectedly dies. Claiming his inheritance in Newfoundland, New Jersey, Fin just wants to be left alone to tinker, take measurements, and whatnot, but he is drawn out of his shell by a gregarious snack vendor (Bobby Cannavale) and a haunted woman trying to deal with a failing marriage (Patricia Clarkson). One might have a hunch, as it were, that this group will somehow form a family, and said hunch would not be wrong.
Along the way, Fin also reluctantly befriends a local schoolgirl (Raven Goodwin of Lovely & Amazing) and experiences some intrigue with a local librarian (Michelle Williams). In a lot of ways this sweet, slight tale is kind of old hat in its explorations of loneliness, and how human relations are always knottier than we want them to be, but they always beat the alternative. But though the movie is predictable, it’s also honest; Fin emerges from his struggles a better person but not A Better Person, if you catch my drift. And in any case all of the actors are a great pleasure to watch: Clarkson beautifully embodies a smart woman unsure of her own attractiveness and worth, Cannavale is an exemplary soulful goofball, and Dinklage is, of course, the straw that stirs this drink. I still want to see him in a tuxedo some time.
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