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A train whistle blows as the heir of an impoverished legacy finds solitude in the simple folks he meets at his new home.

The Station Agent features Peter Dinklage in the leading role as Finbar McBride, a dwarf of inestimable intelligence and compassion. Fascinated with trains, Finbar works for close personal friend Henry Styles (Paul Benjamin) building and repairing model train parts. When Styles passes away and leaves him a small, run-down station in the middle of New Jersey, Finbar takes to the rails to guide him to his new home.

Dinklage turns out a fantastic performance as the diminutive spitfire. He meets several interesting people near his new home. Bobby Cannavale vociferously portrays Joe Oramas, a concession wagon operator who finds Finbar's love of trains interesting and goes to great lengths to befriend him despite Finbar's multiple attempts to prevent it. Finbar meets and eventually falls in love with Olivia Harris, a divorcing mess given quiet rage and masterful presence by Indie queen Patricia Clarkson. Clarkson's performance lights up an intriguing story with her quiet and explosive defiance.

The Station Agent takes great pains to use adversity through diversity to satisfy its audience. We find ourselves enjoying every minute of these delightfully neurotic characters. Thomas McCarthy who both wrote the screenplay and directed the picture brought us an understanding of three miserable people whose lives together capture the love and dedication afforded other, better-adjusted people. Each one has reasons to hate the world about them but the friendliness and openness that develops between them creates an environment of hope for a safe future.

We learn as much about ourselves through the performances in this film as we do about the characters themselves. It's not hard to see our own occasional loneliness, inability to fit in and desire to shut out the world when our problems explode beyond our capacity to deal with them. It shows us that friends will care enough to support you when you're down, even when you don't want their help. We can push them away with all of our might but true friends will always push back and take their position beside you with loyalty.

What's also amazing about The Station Agent is that it takes the roles assigned to these characters and slowly reverses them. Finbar's arrival is filled with his own inner resentment and lack of faith in those around him to see him as a human being and not some midget who is subjected to ridicule. To that end, both Joe and Olivia do their best to show him that they have no concern for his diminutive size and want to get to know the real man. The roles slowly reverse as Olivia begins the film trying to get to know Finbar as he tries to shut her out and later, she realizes that she may have seen something completely different in Finbar and he goes on the offensive to help her realize she's wrong.

The Station Agent is a slow film and its conclusion is abrupt. However, it's a film that will renew your faith in people. Differences between people are often used to alienate them instead of unify them. Our country's history has been filled with such issues and we continue to struggle with them. Together, with films like this to act as a guide to understanding our minorities, we can hopefully reclaim our civic identity and continue to rise above our world of division.

-Wesley Lovell (March 26, 2004)