As the opening credits appear in “The Station Agent,” a fascinating story comes to a close. Finbar “Fin” McBride (Peter Dinklage), a solemn dwarf, goes to work at a train enthusiasts’ store with an elderly black man, Henry (Paul Benjamin).
Quietly, these outsiders busy themselves with toys for grown-ups. When Henry collapses, dead on the linoleum, Fin’s only friend is gone. He’ll have to close the store, and he is still ridiculed for being a dwarf.
It’s the transitive nature of this beautiful prologue to the story that constitutes the bulk of “The Station Agent” that makes it such an endearing film. Writer/director Tom McCarthy’s debut is a mature, gentle work that manages to transcend its clich
