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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Station Agent, The
Miramax Films
MPAA RATING: R for language and some drug content
Starring
Peter Dinklage,
Patricia Clarkson,
Bobby Cannavale,
Raven Goodwin,
Paul Benjamin,
and
Michelle Williams
A film about three people with nothing in common, except their shared solitude, until chance circumstances bring their lives together. Before long, from this forgotten depot, this mismatched threesome forges an unlikely bond, which ultimately reveals that even isolation is better shared. (Miramax)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Thomas McCarthy
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Thomas McCarthy
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 15, 2004
Video: June 15, 2004
Theatrical: October 3, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Audience Award (Dramatic), Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and Special Jury Performance Award (Clarkson) (tie), 2003 Sundance Film Festival
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthie Stein
As touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year.
91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Watching this tender little movie with its teasing humor, its deeply felt performances and its focus on slight moments rather than gigantic sea changes is like hearing a tasteful sonata instead of the usual vulgar symphony that the cinema offers up.
90
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
The best advice to filmgoers who appreciate smart, mature, humanist movies is, simply, Go.
90
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
It's hard to say why The Station Agent sends you out feeling so benevolent. It may have something to do with being in the presence of a director who treats you with respect. McCarthy allows us to feel without telling us how and what we should feel.
90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It avoids the compulsively calibrated storytelling of big-studio moviemaking for a slower-moving but powerfully absorbing drama.
90
Slate
David Edelstein
Ends very abruptly, at a point where you're ready to hang out with it a while. I wanted it to go on and on, but that ending is right. It leaves you the way American movies almost never do: relaxed, receptive, and happy in the moment, not even caring if your train comes in.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Duane Byrge
Wonderfully understated, Station Agent is a masterful film and a bracing movie experience. Its power is in large part because of the performers, most prominently Dinklage as the solitary dwarf.
90
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Its charming story of the delicate intersection of three highly individual lives is the kind of completely personal yet universal film that the festival and the entire independent movement came into being to celebrate. And it does it all in 88 deft and funny minutes.
90
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The movie's writer and director, 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.
89
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
McCarthy’s film is rich in tone and subtlety, but has precious little dialogue. It feels less like a modern motion picture than some odd poem long lost and then discovered in another age, a timeless, ageless gem of hard-resined emotions melting into real life.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
His height didn't stop independent writer-director Thomas McCarthy from casting his friend in The Station Agent, scoring a triumph for both.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
His height didn't stop independent writer-director Thomas McCarthy from casting his friend in The Station Agent, scoring a triumph for both.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
His height didn't stop independent writer-director Thomas McCarthy from casting his friend in The Station Agent, scoring a triumph for both.
88
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The Station Agent has craft and pace and that far rarer quality, fellow-feeling.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Yes, this 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.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
It's the old cliche, but (like most cliches) it's true: It's impossible to imagine this picture without this actor.
88
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
[McCarthy] marries beautifully spare compositions with comically abbreviated dialogue to craft something magnificent from a vaguely precious premise that could easily be the foundation for a parody.
88
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Everyone involved can claim credit, but it's Dinklage, in an understated, outstanding performance, who turns this unlikely tale into art that will strike a chord with any open-minded audience.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
That his (writer-director Tom McCarthy) strange, often funny film is so well-disciplined and deadpan refreshing is an achievement.
80
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Quiet and meditative, Dinklage neatly sidesteps the trope of the angry dwarf, and Clarkson, even in pain and rage, is characteristically warm and sexy -- she's our very own Helen Mirren.
80
Film Threat
Tim Merrill
Tom McCarthy’s film is never more than small, and that’s how it should be. It is about treasuring life -– sometimes even cheating death -– and it manages to warm hearts in its own uncompromising way, rarely cheating and never belittling.
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
McCarthy's characters make for good company even in their story's awkward patches, and in a film so unabashedly about the value of friendship, good company goes a long way.
80
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Thanks to the performances and McCarthy's understated script and direction, the film walked off with both the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A droll and affecting debut feature by Tom McCarthy.
80
Empire
Damon Wise
Ultimately this is a film about feelings, moments and things not said. Like "Lost In Translation," it’s about what happens when people living in their own little worlds collide.
75
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Mercifully, The Station Agent is not about how these misfits heal one another -- they're not that miserable, for one thing. It's about the unlikely ways proximity, need, and coincidence create friendships.
75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Despite its humble nature, the film is downright uplifting without being vulgar, flashy or embarrassing.
75
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
For most of the film, Fin is only as odd as Joe and Olivia -- three eccentrics rendered positively normal in a friendship built on the crap we all face every day.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The movie's main attraction isn't hard to find. It's essentially a character study, but one where the nature of the study is as unique as the stature of the character.
75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Though the movie is predictable, it's also honest; Fin emerges from his struggles a better person but not A Better Person, if you catch my drift. And in any case all of the actors are a great pleasure to watch.
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
The movie, which ends on an unexpected note of wistful humor, also gleans gentle and non-derisive chuckles out of Fin's physical state.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The three actors could not be better. Huge feelings are packed into this small, fragile movie. It's something special.
70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A well-acted and crafted character piece that's a bit too calculated and cutesy for its own good.
70
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
The brilliance of Fin is that he reins in a lifetime of rage, and there is a determination in his eye, and in the line of his chin, that practiced moviegoers will, possibly to their surprise, identify as halfway to sexy--the world-weary smolder of the leading man. [6 October 2003, p. 138]
70
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
Manages to explore the darker facets of friendship without being dark.
70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
With its quiet pacing and dry-as-a-bone wit, the film strongly recalls the deadpan comedies of Jim Jarmusch or early Hal Hartley, but it gradually reveals a welcome new sensibility, one that's entirely McCarthy's own.
70
Chicago Reader
Jim Healy
The rural setting and the loners-banding-together theme are affecting and the supporting players--especially Michelle Williams and Raven Goodwin as two more outcasts--are all superb.
60
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
A bit too satisfied with its own sweet sensitivities.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
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