The Station Agent
3/4
poster

Details & Information from IMDB

Genre Drama
Year 2003
Duration 88 min
Rating 7.9 out of 10
Description: The passion of the lonely and quiet midget Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklake) is train. Fin inherits some lands with an old depot in the middle of nowhere in Newfoundland, New Jersey, when his partner also fanatic for trains and unique friend Henry Styles (Paul Benjamin) dies. He moves to the train station, where his neighbor is the Cuban Joe Oramas (Bobby Cannavale), who is working in the hot-dog trailer of his sick father. He also meets Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson), a clumsy divorced woman who grieves the death of her beloved son Sam. After some days, the weird trio becomes friends.
Comments: I have never commented on any database about anything until now.

I wanted to find out more about the cast and Google raised this DB; I was delighted to see the customer comment facility. Reading a selection of comments I was astonished to find how much uniformity there was. Many of us seem to have had a similar experience.

I have seen the film twice. I enjoyed it so much that I thought perhaps it was because I was in the right mood and it would not stand scrutiny a second time. I enjoyed it, if anything, more on the second occasion. On both occasions when the film ended there was an audible groan of dismay from the audience that it finished long before they were ready.

It has not had a wide circulation in England and I have been a one man promotional bore encouraging friends to go to see it.

I thought that Lost in Translation would be my favourite of the last few years but it has been pushed out of the top slot.

I am surprise at a few of the comments from other contributors. "what is a coffee wagon doing in such a place", "poor script for Patricia Clarkson" etc.

For me the script, photography, acting, cutting and casting were perfect. Only one complaint- too short.

It is hard to pick the best performance and I will certainly change my mind next time I ask myself, but today I would go for Bobby Cannavale.

Geoff Livesey