Review: The Station Agent

The Station Agent (2003):

Synopsis – A quiet man with stature problems loses his best friend and then most of the rest of his life because of that. He resorts to moving into an unused train station building, hoping to live the rest of his life in solitude. He is foiled again and again by a crazy lady who tries to run him over, a Cuban man who won’t shut up, and a little girl who is a little girl. Oh yeah, and a hot librarian.

Starring - Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams, other famous people who don't amount to more than cameos.

I’ve kind of been excited to see The Station Agent for a while now. I remember hearing about how amazing all of Thomas McCarthy’s movies were on podcasts like Filmspotting and the /filmcast. I saw one of his three directed movies on a trip to England, and I was not disappointed. Win Win, as I remember it, was a well-directed and well scripted dramedy with tons of heart. It reminded me of an Alexander Payne movie, with a bit less of the “humans are all gross” thing going on. So I’m sure I have built up The Station Agent in my mind over the years. The movie was good, but ultimately disappointing for me. It is Thomas McCarthy’s directorial debut, and I think that is fairly evident throughout the movie. Some heavy direction can be seen, along with dialogue that came off as cliché and forced. But even with these criticisms The Station Agent is a good film with plenty going for it.

What I Liked:

-Peter Dinklage. At this point in his career saying Peter Dinklage is great is kind of a DUH, so I won’t go into that too much. In this movie he played quiet and rude, but he never came off as an asshole, which is something I wish I could pull off in my life. He displays such a depth of character just through his actions. As I said in the synopsis, he is practically tortured into social relationships by the people he meets in Newfoundland, New Jersey, and you just want to give him a great big hug while he begrudgingly allows these people to invade his personal space and bring him out of his depression. He is 100 percent the best thing about the movie.

-Thomas McCarthy sure did manage to make an interesting narrative. I’m going to go through the stuff in the story: Peter Dinklage is essentially homeless and depressed after his friend dies; Bobby Cannavale plays a food truck’s son who is substituting for his father while he is Ill; Patricia Clarkson is a woman mourning a loss and dealing with a separation from her husband at the same time; Raven Goodwin is a precocious child who seems to have no parental guidance and wanders around train yards risking tetanus; Michelle Williams is the local librarian who is a girl and has girl problems. That’s a lot of stuff, but it is all blended into this smooth flowing story that goes down great, like the 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper is not a sponsor of this review. There are only a few hitches to speak of…

What I Didn’t Like:

-Poor, poor Michelle Williams. When I was writing that bit about the story just now, I totally forgot that she was in the movie. From what I could see she was the most heavily directed in this, with every scene coming of as stiff and a bit awkward. When she is introduced in the film, she is a carrying an arm load of books in the library, which she drops as she screams after seeing Peter Dinklage for the first time. I feel like I could practically hear Thomas McCarthy saying “3, 2, 1, ok drop the books!” It was incredibly forced. After that, she is seen at the library a few times, not really developing into a character other than the pretty librarian, which might be all she was supposed to be. Then the bar scene happens. Or rather the right outside of the bar scene happens. I will save this bit for a little later.

What I Hated:

-This little part is just a personal pet peeve of mine. SPOILER to follow: There is a scene where we see the 3 mains sitting on the porch of the train building, and Bobby Cannavale gets up to play soccer with some kids and the adult man who is with them (I’m not going to assume he’s their father, he could have been a kidnapper for all I know! This is not important anyway). The camera shows Cannavale kicking the ball with the kids, then a shot of Patricia Clarkson smiling. That smile begins to disappear from her face. The camera goes back to the game with a closer shot on the little boy. The camera then goes BACK to Clarkson, who is no longer smiling. SHE IS SAD NOW, she must be thinking of her own child who has died. This just felt much too heavy handed to me. The audience is smart; there is no need to force a connection to the character like that. We knew she might be sad the minute we saw those kids having fun, because Clarkson’s character is a bit manic and prone to her emotions more than the other two. Anyone would be sad being reminded of a better time.

-Now here we are, outside the bar. Michelle Williams is hanging out with Peter Dinklage. She is disappointed because she was expecting her boyfriend to show up and instead he called her and gave some bullshit excuse. VROOM! Up pulls a truck and out pops a blond headed doofus, the boyfriend just mentioned. He can’t understand what the Michelle Williams’ problem is, so HE PUSHES HER. Out of nowhere and unprovoked he pushes her, which I guess was the point but it just felt so INCREDIBLY fake. He then pushes Dinklage when he tries to get in the way, and you know what I’m not even going to go on. It was just a terrible scene, forced and fake and not necessary.

Verdict:

It’s always a little tough writing the verdict after I have just listed things I hated. I should probably write this part first so I stick with my original impression and not get too fixated on the details that troubled me. Here’s what I think: The Station Agent is a better than average movie, with some problems that a first time director would run into that don’t take away too much from the experience. Peter Dinklage’s performance alone is worth the hour and a half of your time. Give it a watch. It is currently on Netflix Instant.