Movie Fest III

First film of the day: the excellent The Station Agent. If you loved Garden State and similar films where there's no real plot, just people getting to know each other, then you'll love this.

Finbar lives in New York, and with his friend, runs a train hobbyists shop. The friend dies, and leaves Fin a small, closed-down train station in Hicksville, New Jersey. Fin, taciturn and semi-reclusive due to being a dwarf and fed up with stares, jokes, etc, moves to the station to live. There, he meets Olivia (woman going through a seperation, still missing her husband, son died 2 years ago), and Joe (looking after his dad's mobile catering unit, or ice cream van in real terms, whilst his dad is unwell). The three of them slowly start to get on, encouraged by Joe's manhattan cheekiness. Throw in a young librarian who fancies Finbar (they share a tender kiss eventually), and a schoolgirl who plays in the trains which have been dumped at the station, and you have a set of characters who grow on you, and provide some gentle humour. Peter Dinklage (who plays Fin) has a fantastic "why does this always happen to me?" look that he gets the chance to perfect in several comedic moments.

And it ends with the three of them sat side by side overlooking the water:

Finbar: When were blimps invented?
Olivia: No idea.
Joe: Maybe you could go down the library and ask that little hotty.
Olivia: She IS cute.
Joe: It's the librarian thing. Glasses off, hair down, books flying
Finbar: She doesn't wear glasses
Olivia: Buy her some, it'll be worth it

Magic. Sheer magic.

posted by Blakey UK @ 12:21 pm