My Review of ‘The Station Agent’ (2003)

I’ll just start by saying I really enjoyed this movie. It’s a great example of how unique and interesting characters make a huge difference in creating good stories. It’s also an example of how great a movie you can make on a limited budget.

It’s about a quiet, single man with dwarfism from Hoboken, NJ. His name is Finbar (Fin) McBride (played by Peter Dinklage), and he loves railroads. He works in a model train shop, and his boss, Henry (played by Paul Benjamin), is pretty much his only friend. But, less than 10 minutes into the movie, his friend drops dead — literally. As a result, Fin inherits an abandoned train depot, way outside of Hoboken.

Fin is actually fine with this. He gets a bit sick of the way people treat him because of his height. If they aren’t making fun of him, they’re going so far out of their way not to, it’s agony for him. No one wants to be pitied or be defined by something they can’t even control. Something as superficial as height.

So he’s happy to leave civilization (or, to be more specific, Hoboken) and live by himself in this little abandoned hut, sleeping on a mattress or whatever.

But a guy named Joe comes along and ruins all that. Joe (played by Bobby Cannavale) shows up in a food truck and parks it there. Seems like an odd place to set up a food truck, but then again it…