The Station Agent (2003)

Directed by: Thomas McCarthy
Starring: Peter Dinklage

**1/2

The Station Agent is a nice little movie. Unfortunately its not a whole lot more than that. Peter Dinklage plays Fin, who inherits his only friend's train depot after he dies. His intention is to live a life of solitude and to very simply not be bothered. Unfortunately, the very friendly Joe tries to befriend him and Olivia, who can't seem to get out of her own way as he life very subtly falls apart interferes with what Fin wants out of life.  They are simple characters with simple lives. This is precisely the intention and it works for the film. It maintains its simple feel and mood that surrounds the characters.

Where the film falls short (no pun intended) is that Peter Dinklage's character could have been played by just about anyone. The aspects of the story surrounding his dwarfism were unnecessary especially considering the performance he turned in.  Had Dinklage not been good enough to sell the simple conflicts of the story and his character, the much bigger and more obvious conflict (Fin dealing with the hardships of being different) would have been more necessary. Dinklage, however, nails the loner character so well that he didn't need to be a dwarf. That sounds horrible. I should say, the character of Fin could have just as easily and successfully played by anyone, short, tall, black, white etc. etc. That didn't sound much better.

The supporting cast was above average at best. Bobby Cannavale as Joe wasn't great but he was a good cast as the character. He very much came across as the annoying neighbor with nothing but good intentions. Patricia Clarkson was kind of the opposite. Her performance as Olivia was nothing special and she really didn't work as the character. In fact, I'm not sure I'll every really buy Patricia Clarkson as the love interest of a film.  Lastly, was Michelle Williams who was very good not only in her performance but in defining a very real character with very real problems, which is essentially what this film was often trying to capture.

As I said, its a nice little film but there isn't anything that brings it over the top. Its simplicity works to both its advantage and its disadvantage. A good simple movie is tough to pull off.  Its also makes it very tough to write a review for.  So that's that.