re:mote voices

Title: The Station Agent
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Williams
Director: Thomas McCarthy

Finn is a serious man, who seems to live for his hobby, an interest in trains. At work he constructs models for an enthusiasts shop, working in the back to fulfil customer orders. For fun he hangs out with other enthusiasts, where the watch footage of train’s taken by train chasers. However with the death of his boss Finn finds that he has been left a station house on the outskirts of New York state. He heads out there, looking to make a new home for himself, but it is perhaps not surprising that the thing that has drawn attention to him his whole life continues to attract attention out here. Finn is a midget, in the city and out here, this leads to jokes at his expense, people stopping to take his picture, school kids asking him what year he is in. But Finn is also a pretty solid individual, for the most part he shrugs it off, keeps himself to himself – he is getting by.

With which he makes some new friends, and the reality of the situation is for all that they attract less attention, they are actually more out there than he is. There is a guy with a fast food stand set up outside the station house, a compulsive talker, who stayed in the same kind of area of New York as Finn did, but is back in small town because of a sick father. Then there is the woman artist who is running away from a life somewhere else, and almost manages to knock Finn over on his first day there, twice. The three form a kind of group of friends, with the young, attractive librarian and timid school kid hanging around the peripherals. However the strains of live cause complications and it looks like things might just fall apart.

The strength of The Station Agent and why it has gained a certain reputation, including nominations for awards like the BAFTAs, is the strength of the characters and the way they interact. As a film it is not an outright comedy, but there is a sense of humour that comes from events and the quirks of the characters involved.