THE STATION AGENT

Starring:
Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams, Raven Goodwin and Paul Benjamin

Writer/Director:
Thomas McCarthy

Running Time:
88 mins

Out to buy on DVD 13/09/04

 

"We're train chasing Baby!"

Joe

When his friend and employer Henry (Benjamin) dies suddenly, Finn (Dinklage) is left an old railroad station in his will. He decides to move to the station in Newfoundland, New Jersey to start a new, quiet, solitary life. There he meets the extremely chatty hotdog seller Joe (Cannavale) and then nearly get ran over by Olivia (Clarkson). The pair instantly takes a liking to the loner, train enthusiast but will the rest of the community feel the same about man who was born with dwarfism?

Once in a while a small budget, character driven, comedy drama comes out of nowhere and grabs your attention. The Station Agent is one of those films.

Writer/director Thomas McCarthy brings us a tale of three lonely people who, even if they don't know it yet, really do need some companionship. This is a story about personal space and how we really need that broken once in a while because if not life will become very dull indeed. It deals with the human spirit and how anyone can reach out to someone when they are in need or when they can see that they are lonely, sometimes with hysterical results.

As well as the touching and at times, very funny story, the film has three characters that you end up really caring about. The three central performances make the film what it is. Firstly we have Peter Dinklage as Finn, the man who has suffered the indignity of verbal abuse all his life due to his size. Finn can't take it anymore and seeks solitude in his newly inherited railroad station. This is a tender and understated performance from Dinklage, who plays Finn as a very closed off man who slowly opens himself up to friendship and becomes the linchpin of the group.

Bobby Cannavale is Joe, a New Yorker stuck in New Jersey running his ill father's hotdog van. He is probably the friendliest person you could ever meet and is fascinated by Finn's interest in trains. Cannavale provides much of the comic relief in the movie and is really the heart of the film as he wears it so clearly on his sleeve.

The wonderful Patricia Clarkson is artist Olivia, who has chosen solitude to come to terms with her grief over losing her son. She is the soul of the group, the mother figure that the two men come to rely on. This is a tremendous performance from an actress who is always great in whatever she appears in, as she effortlessly changes from farce to sheer emotional drama over the course of the story.

There is also good support from Michelle Williams as Emily in a role that sees her move away from her Dawson's Creek persona and into more challenging roles.

'The Station Agent' is storytelling and acting at its most natural. It is like you are witnessing a glimpse into these people's lives, following their trails and tribulations as well as their joys and passions. This is character driven, comedy drama at its very best which only let down by its sudden end that leaves you wanting to know more about these three extremely likable people.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good. When you realise that this is low budget feature, the transfer is even more impressive. The picture quality is first rate throughout even during the darker scenes of the movie. The soundtrack is equally impressive with a strong emphasis on dialogue but the wonderful score also fills your speakers.

BONUS FEATURES

Feature Commentary with writer/director Thomas McCarthy and actors Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale
It's refreshing to have a commentary that is like a group of friends gathering together to talk about something they love very dearly and this is one of those rare occasions. This chatty, informative and fun track is how all DVD commentaries should be. Interweaving tales from the shoot, stories about getting the film financed and actually made and reflecting on Q & A sessions when viewed asked about specific scenes and their meaning. Bobby Cannavale is a riot throughout but each of them makes their own contribution to the commentary for this excellent movie.

Deleted Scenes (3.43 mins)
Entitled 'Lunch on the Roof", "Henry's funeral", "The morning after" and "Gorgeous Frank", these short deleted sequences add a little to the movie but with the absence of a commentary track or introduction, we don't really know why these scenes were removed.

OVERALL

A gem of a movie receives a rather unfulfilled DVD treatment. There is no arguing that the DVD commentary is an example of how it should be done and the deleted scenes are interesting but there could have been so much more. This is shame because a film this good deserves so much better. The lack of extra features should not put you off renting or buying the movie however as this is a film that deserves to be watched and should be part of everyone's collection.

DVD

Lost in Translation


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