The Station Agent

Winning an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, Writer and Director Thomas McCarthy offers us a wonderful film that builds to a rich tapestry of relationship between an unlikely cast of characters. There's not a wasted scene, an insignificant line of dialog, or even a non-critical facial expression in this vehicle for lead actor Peter Dinkage as he plays a dwarf named Finbar. Finbar, despite his best efforts to keep others at arms length, succumbs to the tentative moves of a grieving mother - Olivia (movingly played by Patricia Clarkson) and the blatant overtures of a van food stand owner named Joe (played by Bobby Cannavale) as they seek to pull him out of his comfortable shell.   Joe and Olivia begin the movie with no pretense. Fin constantly evokes stares and comments but just after Olivia tells him that she lost her little boy, he learns that everyone receives unwelcome attention when she asks him to stop looking at her just then. Fin has the effect of pulling truth out of others and thereby is drawn into unwanted connection with them.  The movie is a wonderful meditation of human connection and community

The Station Agent Originally uploaded by sshields.