The Station Agent

Finbar McBride, who has dwarfism, inherits an abandoned train station in New Jersey when the owner of the model train shop where he works dies. He goes there to live alone. Joe, who sells coffee from a van in the car park and never stops talking, and Olivia, a painter who recently lost her son, will not leave him be. The three build a friendship nobody planned. It is Tom McCarthy's first film, which he also wrote. Peter Dinklage plays Finbar, Patricia Clarkson plays Olivia and Bobby Cannavale plays Joe, with Michelle Williams in the cast. It was shot on 16mm in just twenty days on a 500,000 dollar budget, at locations across New Jersey including the historic Newfoundland station. It took 8.7 million dollars worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent and Metacritic at 81. Roger Ebert described it as a story about trying to figure out what you love to do. Elvis Mitchell wrote that quiet is a character in the film. McCarthy won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, and the film took the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, the John Cassavetes Award and the Audience Award at Sundance. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet, small, character-led films. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for something to happen. The film does almost nothing and leaves all the weight to three actors.