The Station Agent

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The Station Agent
Station-agent-poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tom McCarthy
Written byTom McCarthy
Produced by Mary Jane Skalski
Robert May
Kathryn Tucker
Starring Peter Dinklage
Patricia Clarkson
Bobby Cannavale
Raven Goodwin
Paul Benjamin
Michelle Williams
CinematographyOliver Bokelberg
Edited by Tom McArdle
Music by Stephen Trask
Production
companies
SenArt Films
Next Wednesday
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates
  • January 2003 (2003-01)(Sundance) [1]
  • October 3, 2003 (2003-10-03)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$500,000
Box office$8.7 million [2]

The Station Agent is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom McCarthy in his directorial debut. It stars Peter Dinklage as a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned train station in the Newfoundland section of Jefferson Township, New Jersey. It also stars Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams, Bobby Cannavale and John Slattery. For his writing achievement, McCarthy won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. The film itself also won the John Cassavetes Award.

Contents

Plot

Finbar McBride, a quiet, unmarried man with dwarfism, has a deep love of railroads and lives a solitary existence. He works in a Hoboken, New Jersey, model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend Henry. He keeps to himself and is uncomfortable when people react to his size.

When Henry dies, Fin learns that the hobby shop is to be closed, and that Henry has bequeathed him a rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude but becomes reluctantly enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Cuban American Joe Oramas operates his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and artist Olivia Harris is trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and its ramifications on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated. Olivia's initial and second meetings with Fin involve her dangerously distracted driving. Cleo is a young girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and wants him to lecture her class about them. Emily, the local librarian, is a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend.

The train station used in the movie Train Station at Newfoundland, New Jersey.jpg
The train station used in the movie

Joe, relentlessly upbeat and talkative, cracks Fin's reserve. The two take daily walks along the tracks, and after Olivia gives Fin a movie camera, Joe drives alongside a passing train so that Fin can film it. Joe and Fin sleep at Olivia's house after watching the footage and the next morning meet a flustered, unannounced David. The trio's tentative friendship is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression and disappears. Emily seeks solace in Fin, who is realizing human interaction may not be wholly unpleasant. When Fin tries to protect Emily from her boyfriend at a bar he pushes Fin aside, causing Fin to lapse back into his asocial behaviour. Emily comes to apologize, and after she and Fin share a kiss, she spends the night with Fin after asking if she can "just sleep" there. Cleo asks Fin if Olivia is coming back; he replies that he doesn't know. Keeping an eye on Olivia's house, he sees her arguing on the phone with David and goes onto her porch. Olivia angrily tells him to leave. Fin spends the night drinking and, collapsing on the track, is passed over by a train, unharmed but for his pocket watch. Fin walks to Olivia's home only to find she has attempted suicide. Olivia reveals that David is having another baby with a different woman. Fin takes care of Olivia's home while she recuperates in the hospital. Fin finds the courage to talk to the school children about trains.

Olivia, Joe, and Fin share a meal at Olivia's house, their conversation filled with some small talk and reconciliation. Olivia and Joe tease Fin about Emily, suggesting he seek her again.

Cast

Production

The Station Agent was shot on 16 mm film in 20 days with a budget of half a million dollars. [3]

According to writer-director Tom McCarthy's commentary on the DVD release, the film was shot on a shoestring budget in a limited amount of time. Locations used included Lake Hopatcong, Dover, Hibernia, Rockaway Township, Rockaway Borough, Hoboken, Newfoundland and Oak Ridge, New Jersey, as well as Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Newfoundland station, originally built by the New Jersey Midland Railway in 1872, is located in Newfoundland, New Jersey, on the active New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.

Reception

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastián Film Festival before going into limited release in the US on October 3, 2003. Playing in three theaters, it grossed $57,785 on its opening weekend, with an average of $19,261 per theater and ranking 55th at the box office. Its widest release was 198 theaters, where it earned $5,739,376 domestically and $2,940,438 internationally, for a total of $8,679,814, well above its estimated $500,000 production budget. [2]

The film received a very positive response from critics. It has a rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A sweet and quirky film about a dwarf, a refreshment stand operator, and a reclusive artist connecting with one another." [4] It also has a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 reviews. [5]

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times observed, "Tom McCarthy has such an appreciation for quiet that it occupies the same space as a character in this film, a delicate, thoughtful and often hilarious take on loneliness . . . It's the kind of appetizing movie you want to share with others." [6]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, "[T]his is a comedy, but it's also sad, and finally, it's simply a story about trying to figure out what you love to do and then trying to figure out how to do it . . . It is a great relief . . . that The Station Agent is not one of those movies in which the problem is that the characters have not slept with each other and the solution is that they do. It's more about the enormous unrealized fears and angers that throb beneath the surfaces of their lives." [7]

Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "as touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year" and "a remarkably assured first film." [8]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Tom McCarthy has a gift for funny and touching nuances . . . The three actors could not be better. Huge feelings are packed into this small, fragile movie. It's something special." [9]

James Christopher of The Times stated, "The brilliance of Peter Dinklage's performance as the ironclad loner is that he doesn’t much care. Yet there’s something deeply affecting about his stoicism and suspicion that has nothing to do with artificial sweeteners, Disney sentiment, or party political broadcasts on behalf of dwarfs. Dinklage just gets on with his performance like an actor who can't understand why he's got the lead role. It's this tension between the film and the unwilling Romeo that makes The Station Agent such a hypnotic watch." [10]

Accolades

BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay Tom McCarthyWon
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Patricia ClarksonWon
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Performer Peter DinklageNominated
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Patricia ClarksonWon
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay Won
Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award Won
Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male Peter DinklageNominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting ActressPatricia ClarksonWon
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best ScreenplayWon
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Patricia ClarksonWon
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Patricia ClarksonWon
Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Peter DinklageNominated
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Patricia ClarksonNominated
Sundance Film Festival Audience Award (Dramatic) Won
Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Patricia ClarksonWon
Sundance Film Festival Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardWon
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated

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References

  1. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (26 January 2003). "'Splendor' top drama in Park City". Variety. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 "The Station Agent (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent - Filmmaker Magazine - Fall 2003". filmmakermagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  4. ↑ "The Station Agent (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "The Station Agent Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Mitchell, Elvis (3 October 2003). "A Train Depot, More Dream Than Destination". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (17 October 2003). "The Station Agent". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Stein, Ruthie (17 October 2003). "Troubled souls find one another / 'Station Agent' has unusual story that quietly gets under the skin". San Francisco Chronicle . San Francisco: Hearst. ISSN   1932-8672 . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Travers, Peter (September 25, 2003). "The Station Agent". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on May 29, 2008.
  10. ↑ Christopher, James (March 25, 2004). "The Station Agent". The Times . Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.
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