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Station Agent, The
Miramax Films


8.1

based on 38 reviews
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based on 25 votes
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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.

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.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The best advice to filmgoers who appreciate smart, mature, humanist movies is, simply, Go.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It avoids the compulsively calibrated storytelling of big-studio moviemaking for a slower-moving but powerfully absorbing drama.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Station Agent has craft and pace and that far rarer quality, fellow-feeling.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

That his (writer-director Tom McCarthy) strange, often funny film is so well-disciplined and deadpan refreshing is an achievement.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A droll and affecting debut feature by Tom McCarthy.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Despite its humble nature, the film is downright uplifting without being vulgar, flashy or embarrassing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The three actors could not be better. Huge feelings are packed into this small, fragile movie. It's something special.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A well-acted and crafted character piece that's a bit too calculated and cutesy for its own good.

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]

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

Manages to explore the darker facets of friendship without being dark.

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.

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.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

A bit too satisfied with its own sweet sensitivities.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

jd gave it a1:
Yet another movie whose success depends on flattering the viewer that he's somehow more intelligent and sensitive than most of the bozos on screen -- which isn't terribly hard for the writer to do, since he's written all the parts. Add to that the usual dose of post-ironic quirk, and the ludicrous notion that the lonely offer each other comfort (if that were true, why would anyone be lonely?) and we've got a Sundance award-winner. What would happen if actual artists started working in this medium?

Denis G. gave it a0:
Ending not abrupt enough. Ten minutes was too much of this drivel abt implausible characters going nowhere slowly.

Pekka P. gave it a10:
Ineffably good!

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
Fascinating and beautifully acted and written.

Lawrence B. gave it a 10:
[***PLOT REVELATIONS***] There is nothing I didn't like in the splendid, artful film. Oh, yes, a question or two - maybe even a minor criticism, e.g., why didn't we know, until the dawn, that the onrushing train, when Fin was drunkenly stupified, was a dream? Or, we're all dying to know from where Fin got his money. Or how on earth could Joe or his dad manage to avoid bankruptcy with the income from the food trailer in the middle of nowhere? Nevertheless, the full experience of this movie was so satisfying, funny, alarming, and poignant as to make us cast aside any such trivial inquiries and simply "take it all in" with wonder and pure enjoyment. Indeed, the scripting was so true, the cinematography so crisp and beautiful, the oddly interjected, spare, music so spot on, and the acting so flawless, that it would not be hyperbole to call this a cinema masterpiece.

Jane P. gave it a 10:
Great movie. Touching, funny, and real. It was disturbing to see the cruelty shown by many individuals toward Fin for being physically different. Whether these actions were due to their ignorance or mean-spirit, we could feel Fin's humiliation and isolation. In striking contrast was the genuine kindness and friendship he found in some individuals (who had their own pain to deal with). Definitely hits home on the subject of loss and loneliness. Finally, as the characters discover acceptance and true joy in friendship, the movie, with it's perfect timing, ends. Very satisfying.

Charles M. gave it a 9:
A terrific little movie about the interaction of three people whose paths cross at an abandoned train depot in New Jersey. Peter Dinklage is wonderful, as someone who wants to be left alone, but Bobby Cannavale will have none of that. Patricia Clarkson is very good...Dinklage is excellent and Bobby Cannavale gives a knockout performance.

Station Agent, The Miramax Films

Station Agent, The
Miramax Films