The Station Agent is a
2003The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy-drama film written and directed by
Thomas McCarthyThomas Joseph McCarthy is an American actor, writer, and director who has appeared in several movies, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television shows such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Saint Maybe...
. McCarthy's script about a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned
train stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
in
Newfoundland, New JerseyNewfoundland is an unincorporated area in West Milford, New Jersey, Jefferson Township, and Rockaway Township. It is located along the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway tracks and Route 23. It is the mailing address of Green Pond, a private lake that is in Rockaway Township. Newfoundland...
won him the
Independent Spirit Award for Best First ScreenplayThe Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-Wins and nominations:1995*David O...
.
Finbar McBride, a quiet, withdrawn, unmarried man with
achondroplasic dwarfismAchondroplasia dwarfism is a type of autosomal dominant genetic disorder that is a common cause of dwarfism. Achondroplastic dwarfs have short stature, with an average adult height of 131 cm for males and 123 cm for females.The prevalence is approximately 1 in 25,000.- Epidemiology...
, has a deep love of everything related to railroads. He works in a
HobokenHoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
model train hobbyRailway modelling or Model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale, or ratio...
shop owned by his similarly silent friend Henry Styles. Because he feels ostracized by a public that tends to make fun of his size, Fin keeps to himself.
Henry dies unexpectedly, and Fin learns he left him a piece of rural property with an abandoned train depot on it.
The Station Agent is a
2003The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy-drama film written and directed by
Thomas McCarthyThomas Joseph McCarthy is an American actor, writer, and director who has appeared in several movies, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television shows such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Saint Maybe...
. McCarthy's script about a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned
train stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
in
Newfoundland, New JerseyNewfoundland is an unincorporated area in West Milford, New Jersey, Jefferson Township, and Rockaway Township. It is located along the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway tracks and Route 23. It is the mailing address of Green Pond, a private lake that is in Rockaway Township. Newfoundland...
won him the
Independent Spirit Award for Best First ScreenplayThe Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-Wins and nominations:1995*David O...
.
Plot
Finbar McBride, a quiet, withdrawn, unmarried man with
achondroplasic dwarfismAchondroplasia dwarfism is a type of autosomal dominant genetic disorder that is a common cause of dwarfism. Achondroplastic dwarfs have short stature, with an average adult height of 131 cm for males and 123 cm for females.The prevalence is approximately 1 in 25,000.- Epidemiology...
, has a deep love of everything related to railroads. He works in a
HobokenHoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
model train hobbyRailway modelling or Model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale, or ratio...
shop owned by his similarly silent friend Henry Styles. Because he feels ostracized by a public that tends to make fun of his size, Fin keeps to himself.
Henry dies unexpectedly, and Fin learns he left him a piece of rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude, but he quickly finds himself reluctantly becoming enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Joe Oramas, a thirty-year-old
Cuban American
, is operating his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and Olivia Harris is a forty-year-old artist trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and the ramifications it has had on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated. Cleo is a young
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and finally convinces him to lecture her class about them. Emily is the local librarian, a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend.
Joe, relentlessly upbeat and overly talkative, soon cracks through Fin's reserve. The two begin to take daily walks along the tracks, and when Olivia gives Fin a movie camera to film the passing trains, Joe pursues them in his truck while Fin captures them on film. The three forge a tentative friendship that is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression. Meanwhile, Emily seeks solace from Fin, who slowly is realizing interaction with other humans may not be as unpleasant as he thought.
Production
According to screenwriter/director Thomas McCarthy's commentary on the DVD release of the film, it was shot on a shoestring budget in a limited amount of time. Locations used included Lake Hopatcong,
DoverDover is a Town in Morris County, New Jersey on the Rockaway River. Dover is 39 miles west of New York City and west of Newark, New Jersey...
,
HiberniaHibernia is an unincorporated area within Rockaway Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP code 07842....
,
RockawayRockaway is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, USA. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 6,473.Rockaway was formed as a borough on June 19, 1894, from portions of Rockaway Township, based on the results of a referendum held the previous day.-Geography:Rockaway is...
, Hoboken, and Newfoundland in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
and
Bucks County, PennsylvaniaBucks County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The county seat is Doylestown. This county is part of the Delaware Valley area.As of 2000, the population was 597,635. A 2004 U.S...
.
The film premiered at the
Sundance Film FestivalThe Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the U.S. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as the Sundance Resort, the festival is the premier...
and was shown at the
Toronto International Film FestivalThe Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival begins the Thursday night after Labour Day and lasts for ten days. Between 300-400 films are screened at approximately 23 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
and the San Sebastián Film Festival before going into limited release in the US on October 3, 2003. Playing on three screens, it grossed $57,785 on its opening weekend. The film eventually earned $5,739,376 in the US and $2,940,438 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $8,679,814.
Cast
- Peter Dinklage
Peter Dinklage is an American film, television and theater actor. Since his breakout role in the 2003 film The Station Agent, he has acted in many prominent movies, including Elf, Underdog, Find Me Guilty, Death at a Funeral, and Prince Caspian.- Personal life :Dinklage was born in Morristown, New...
as Finbar McBride
- Bobby Cannavale
Robert M. "Bobby" Cannavale is an American Emmy Award-winning actor noted for his role as Bobby Caffey on the critically acclaimed television series Third Watch.-Personal life:...
as Joe Oramas
- Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After having a dramatic education in the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and is working steadily on both film and television...
as Olivia Harris
- Michelle Williams
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. Williams broke into stardom on the teen series Dawson's Creek and later graduated to full-length features, most notably Brokeback Mountain, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.-Early life:Williams was born in...
as Emily
- Raven Goodwin as Cleo
- John Slattery
John M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor.Aside from his current Emmy nominated role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men, some of his more notable television roles have included union organizer Al Kahn on Homefront; Senator Walter Mondale in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon;...
as David
- Paul Benjamin
Paul Benjamin is an American actor.Benjamin was born in Pelion, South Carolina. He made his film debut in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy...
as Henry Styles
Critical reception
The film received a very positive response from critics.
Elvis MitchellElvis Mitchell is a former film critic for The New York Times .-Education and early career:Mitchell graduated in 1980 from Wayne State University, where he majored in English...
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."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
of the
Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by the Sun-Times Media Group, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2009.-History:...
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."
Ruthe Stein of the
San Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireSan Francisco Chronicle is Northern California's largest newspaper, and one of the largest in the United States, serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area, but distributed throughout...
called it "as touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year" and "a remarkably assured first film."
Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
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."
James Christopher of
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
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,
DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
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."
Awards and nominations
- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
The BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay is the British Academy Film Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. It has been awarded since 1984, when the original category was split into two awards, the other being the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted...
(winner)
- Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress
-1990s:-2000s:...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Performer
The 16th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were presented in 2004.Peter Jackson's final part of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy "The Return of the King" and Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" both won 3 awards....
(Peter Dinklage, nominee)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Cast
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(winner)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(Bobby Cannavale, winner)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(Peter Dinklage, nominee)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Film
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(nominee)
- Chlotrudis Award for Best Original Screenplay
The 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards were presented March 28, 2004, by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Honoring the best of the past year's independent, documentary and international film, the awards ceremony took place at the venerable Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
(nominee)
- Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
The Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award given by the Florida Film Critics Circle to honor the finest supporting female acting achievementes in filmmaking.- 1990s :- 2000s :...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-Wins and nominations:1995*David O...
(winner)
- Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award
The Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award is presented to the creative team of a film budgeted at less than $500,000 by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers...
(winner)
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male (Peter Dinklage, nominee)
- Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
The 38th Loutzenhiser Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were given on 4 January, 2004 at the McCoy's Public House in Westport, Missouri-Winners:*Best Actor:**Sean Penn - Mystic River*Best Actress:...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Screenplay
The 7th Las Vegas Film Critics Society "Sierra" Awards, honoring the best in film 2003, were given on 6 January, 2004.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Sean Penn – Mystic River*Best Actress:**Charlize Theron – Monster*Best Animated Feature:...
(winner)
- National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress
The 75th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on 3 December, 2003.-Top 10 Films:#Mystic River#The Last Samurai#The Station Agent#21 Grams#House of Sand and Fog#Lost in Translation...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress
The 38th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given by the National Society of Film Critics, honored the best in film for 2003.See also: 2003 National Society of Film Critics Awards nominees.-Winners:*Best Actor:...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay
The Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay is an annual award given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :*1996: Lone Star*1996: The People vs...
(nominee)
- Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (nominee)
- Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Peter Dinklage, nominee)
- Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture (Patricia Clarkson, nominee)
- Sundance Film Festival Audience Award (Dramatic) (winner)
- Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the U.S. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as the Sundance Resort, the festival is the premier...
(Patricia Clarkson, winner)
- Sundance Film Festival Waldo Salt
Waldo Pressman Salt was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism.-Early life and career:...
Screenwriting Award (winner)
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay is one of the three film writing awards given by the Writers Guild of America Award....
(nominee)
External links