"The Station Agent" stands out amongst the titanic amount of mainstream, commercialized movies in the cinemas today.
After all, the lead actor is only four-and-a-half-feet tall.
"The Station Agent," which opens Friday, won three awards at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival: Audience Award, Best Screenplay and Best Performance by Patricia Clarkson.
Fin McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a dwarf who lives and breathes trains. When McBride's fellow train-enthusiast and only friend, Henry Styles (Paul Benjamin) dies suddenly, all that is left for McBride is a train depot in Newfoundland, N.J.
After the funeral, McBride moves from New York to Newfoundland on foot for a quiet life of isolation. At the train depot, he encounters a talkative Cuban hotdog vendor, Joe Oramas (Bob Cannavale), and a clumsy middle-aged divorcee still mourning the loss of her only son, Olivia Harris (Clarkson).
The theme of isolation could not have been better portrayed by anyone than an introverted dwarf. "It had nothing out there," said Styles' lawyer in reference to the train depot, which was a mile-and-a-half away from the nearest store. That is precisely why McBride went there, to immerse himself in solitude.
The film shows how difficult the life of a dwarf can be. Strangers constantly ridicule him through stares and giggles. A grocery store owner takes a picture of him in her store. "The Station Agent" tries to offer the often-diminished point of view of a dwarf in an insensitive and cynical world.
A subtle quietness serves to reinforce the sense of seclusion. There were many scenes in which McBride goes about his daily life alone, eating, sleeping and ironing his shirt. These scenes were coupled with shots of McBride's stoic and reticent face fostering the feeling of simplicity and loneliness.
The redundancy of a drunken McBride's rebuke of the world slightly hinders the aesthetics of the movie. McBride's silence during times of discrimination proves he realizes he is being judged and watched. Therefore, to have a scene in which he stands up on a bar and yells out "Here I am!" inciting everyone to take a good look, is excessive.
Yet the movie's success doesn't rest on its dreariness. It is the subtly opposite effect of the film that probably impressed the Sundance Film Festival judges and audiences. Despite McBride's silent insistence to keep to himself, everyone tends to take notice of him and is drawn to him.
"It is really funny to see the ways different people treat me and see me. I am just a single, boring person," McBride says.
Oramas could not satiate his curiosity of McBride, eventually getting McBride to share his passion for trains. Harris is a socially inept and accident-prone woman who almost runs McBride over twice. Harris tries to apologize but fumbles at every attempt to make up. The togetherness of the movie culminates in scenes in which the characters would gather but shuffle their feet in discomfort. The uneasy alliance created between the characters makes the movie interesting yet simple.
Thomas McCarthy, director and screenwriter of "The Station Agent," uses the combination of a good cast and great script for conveying the messages of detachment and happiness.
From Oramas, who cannot shut up, to McBride, trying unsuccessfully to be a hermit, the movie focused on the theme of isolation resulting in friendship. It is humorous and poignant: a typical Sundance-approved movie.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
