The Station Agent [Region 2] | ![The Station Agent [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516WEG7W37L._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Thomas Mccarthy
Actors: Peter Dinklage, Paul Benjamin, Jase Blankfort, Paula Garces, Josh Pais
Category: DVD
Buy New: $29.16
New (1) Used (2) from $23.38
Rating:  149 reviews
Sales Rank: 205030
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017188812931
ASIN: B0002JK73E
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
A strong ensemble and director Tom McCarthy's sweetly low-key observations make Sundance fave The Station Agent a treat. The film revolves around a reserved, somber dwarf (Peter Dinklage, immortalized by his brilliant ticked-off tirade in Living in Oblivion), a train enthusiast who inherits a small depot in rural New Jersey. He makes friends, somewhat reluctantly, with a group of eccentric locals: the guy at the coffee stand (buoyant Bobby Cannavale), an artist (Patricia Clarkson, impeccable as usual), a librarian (Michelle Williams). A few of the plot strands feel forced, but whenever the actors are simply playing off each other with McCarthy's nicely understated dialogue--which is most of the time--it ambles along winningly. You'll also learn more than you ever thought you'd want to know about trains. The key is Dinklage's smoldering performance, one of those reminders that a single scowl is worth pages of conversation. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 144 more reviews...
 Great film about friendship June 19, 2009
Shak75 (Bronx, NY)
I love this film. When I first saw it I thought it was going to head in one direction, and it took me into a completely different one. Bobby Canavale's Joe is so sweet and funny, without feeling staged. And Patricia Clarkson and Peter Dinkladge have always intrigued me with their work. I love watching actors eyes, and there was so much said, so much character exposition in their eyes that you could watch the film without sound. Tom McCarthy is becoming one of my favorite filmmakers (loved The Visitor as well).
 A well-done character piece May 11, 2009
A. Whitehead (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom)
I picked up this movie on DVD a while ago as it had good reviews and was very cheap (it's currently about 4 on Amazon.co.uk), but I'd never gotten round to watching it. When I heard that its director, Tom McCarthy, and one of its stars, Peter Dinklage, had been signed up for HBO's adaption of George RR Martin's novel A Game of Thrones, it seemed like a good time to give it a go.
The plot is reasonably straightforward. Dinklage plays Fin, a young man suffering from dwarfism. Tired of having people comment on his height, Fin is a withdrawn man who seeks solace in his hobby of studying trains and his job working in a model train shop with his friend Henry. When Henry dies unexpectedly, Fin inherits a piece of property, an old train depot in Newfoundland, New Jersey, and moves in, hoping to continue his life of solitude.
Fin soon finds himself uncomfortably drawn into the lives of several other people. Joe is a garrulous, friendly guy running the local ice cream van on behalf of his father, who is ill. A local woman, Olivia, almost accidentally runs Fin over and in her attempts to make amends they form an interesting friendship. A somewhat less-developed storyline sees Fin attract the attention of Emily, the local young librarian, who is having her own problems.
The Station Agent is a curious movie, which for most of its length seems to be heading down the 'heartwarming relationship drama' route before the director suddenly veers away from the threat of cliche city into a new and more interesting direction. It's a short movie (only 90 minutes) but it has a laidback pace, focusing on the characters, dialogue and their slowly building relationships in a well-developed manner. As well as Dinklage in an outstanding role, Patricia Clarkson as Olivia and Bobby Cannavale give excellent performances as Patricia and Joe, the former playing a badly damaged character and the latter being that slightly overbearing, slightly too friendly type of person I think most people have met at some point in their lives. Michelle Williams has a much slighter role as Emily but makes the most of her scenes.
The late-stage shift in the narrative is an interesting move. Without giving away spoilers, the way that McCarthy avoids corny resolutions to the character arcs and deftly subverts expectations of a neat ending is well-done. He doesn't go bonkers and kill everyone or turn one of the characters into a psychopath, but he also doesn't go down the totally corny route either. It's a thought-provoking way of concluding the film that works well, although it took me a while to get into its headspace.
The Station Agent (****) is a quiet, funny, entertaining and occasionally emotionally intense movie that is well worth a watch. As a piece of character drama, it is a rousing success and fills me with great hope for the HBO project.
The Station Agent - one of the best movies I've ever seen May 4, 2009
Camilla Sciore (Tucson, AZ USA)
The Station Agent is a movie not to be missed! It is an absolute treasure! It is funny, and the acting is fantastic. It's a movie about life, and about friendship, a slow-moving film where hardly anything seems to happen, but deep issues are explored. One feels like one really knows the characters by the end, and it's one of those movies that when it ended, I said, "Already?!" It's one of those movies that you don't want to end - you want to stay with the characters longer, because they feel like your good friends.
Emotional wreckage and companionship April 20, 2009
W. Zeranski (Moscow, PA United States)
This guy, Fin [Finbar McBride], who is a dwarf, is also a misanthrope, his physical appearance having everything to do with his desire for a solitary life. He's also a train buff or rather fanatic. Among train lovers, he's just like everyone else. He inherits a train station, and goes there to live alone, and to be left alone, and peruse his train enthusiasm to the fullest, alone.
Well, two people enter his life: One is Joe, a young man of Cuban extraction, taking care of his father's cafe on wheels business [a van]. He latches onto Fin to relieve his own loneliness. The other is Olivia, a woman failing to deal with death of her boy and is now estranged from her husband. Oh, she almost runs Fin over while he's walking to the local store, and then again, when he's headed back. What a way to begin life in a new home, right?
So, emotional wreckage and a quest for companionship are forced into Fin's life. "The Station Agent" offers humor, tragedy, fulfillment and love when all a guy wanted was to be left alone.
Dwarf, not a midget! Very good insight and perspective! Tom McCarthy's films are great! April 4, 2009
J. Herrmann (RICHMOND,VA)
Plot Synopsis by Andrea LeVasseur of All Movie Guide on-line
Actor and playwright Tom McCarthy makes his feature film debut as a writer/director with the quirky comedy drama The Station Agent. In New Jersey, Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a four-foot-tall lonely man who chooses to live the life of a hermit in an abandoned train yard following the death of his friend. While he is there, he unexpectedly meets and befriends a couple of fellow loners. Troubled Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) is an artist devastated by the loss of her son and separation from her husband, while carefree and friendly Joe (Bobby Cannavale) runs a hot dog stand. The three unlikely friends each deal with their urge to connect compared with their individual need for isolation. Also starring Raven Goodwin, Paul Benjamin, and Michelle Williams. The Station Agent won the Audience award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival
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