Movie Friday

I have not posted any decent movies in a while, so here it is folks. The return of Movie Friday.

The Station Agent is a charming independent film released in 2003. It starts Peter Dinklage as a 30 year old dwarf who moves to an abandoned train station in New Jersey. Fin (short for Finbar) simply wants to be left alone to live a peaceful life without interruption from prying "average size people".

As he arrives at the train station for the first time, he encounters Joe who sets up his father's snack truck at the station each day. Granted in a tiny town with no active train service, he's purely there to push the plot along. Still, Bobby Cannavale shines in his role and delivers a superb performance.

While I was not completely thrilled with the script, there is a wonderful and charming quality to this film that so many others with a much larger budget fail to deliver. The film really works as it examines the struggles that little people encounter in our daily lives amongst other issues. Dinklage's Fin is such a wonderful study in subtlety. His silences and expressions speak volumes. When Heath Ledger was interviewed on Charlie Rose for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, he mentioned how Ang Lee's direction mostly consisted of the words, "Quieter, softer, stillness, minimal movement." With characters such as Fin or Ennis, these performances speak volumes by what they do not verbalize.

Fin also is a trainspotter, interested in everything rail. The trains and train memorobilia that occupy his world add such an interesting and beautiful backdrop for the story. The set design is excellent.

I highly recommend you add this film to your Netflix queue.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Cuidate.