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Narrow release plagues some of the best films

By Alan Charlton

It is unfortunate that some of the best films get very narrow release. Often described as “art films” (a title which suggests that other films are not artistic in any way), they tend to be shown in only a few specialized independent houses, so that people who live some distance from these theatres are forced to wait until they are released on video.

Well, if you live anywhere near the Fifth Avenue movie house, do not wait to see THE STATION AGENT; and if that theatre is too far away, put the film on your list of films to watch for on video.

THE STATION AGENT is a gentle film in which very little happens, but it offers us the chance to get to know some delightful people and to become acquainted with their loneliness.

First among them is Finbar McBride, who happens to be a dwarf. When he loses his job in a model railroad shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, he finds himself heir to an abandoned station agent’s shack in a quiet New Jersey backwater. He soon becomes acquainted with Joe, a young Cuban who is operating his ailing father’s hot dog stand, and Olivia, an artist who is separated from her husband and still grieving for her son, Sam, who died two years previously in a playground accident.

Though Finbar, conscious of others’ reaction to his size, has long since learned to keep people at bay, he soon finds himself embroiled in the lives of these two people, as well as those of the pretty young town librarian and Cleo, a lonely little Afro-American girl. It is this dynamic which is the film’s only concern, and it is more than enough to hold the viewer’s attention for the full running time of the film.

Beautifully photographed and faultlessly acted, THE STATION AGENT is a sort of gentle meditation on the need for people to connect, for the film is, above all, about friendship, the friendship of people who do not wish to admit their own loneliness, do not wish to expose their vulnerability to the hurt that others can inflict, yet who need friendship to find fulfilment.

As the film quietly unfolds, often with a great deal of equally gentle humour, we come to care enormously for these people as we recognize in them the sadness that lies at the centre of all too many people’s lives, and we want to know them better.

Indeed, the film’s major fault is that we do not learn enough about them. The characters come into the film, as they come into each others’ lives, with no background. What is Finbar’s past? We can only guess. Why is Joe, the gregarious and people-loving Joe, so unconnected to his community that he latches onto the friendless Finbar?

Such an approach may be deliberate on the part of writer/director Thomas McCarthy, for in a sense, we are asked to establish a connection with the characters knowing them only in the present, just as they do with each other, but their sketchy backgrounds remain a dramatic weakness.

This, however, is a small fault in such an unusual and memorable film, though be warned there is a smattering of coarse language used. Patricia Clarkson as Olivia and Bobby Cannavale as Joe are totally believable and likeable, while Peter Dinklage is nothing short of stupendous as Finbar. Together they help to make THE STATION AGENT one of the best films of the year.

Because of an implied sexual encounter, an instance of drug abuse, and sporadic rough and crude language, as well as profanity, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III—adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R—restricted. The B.C. rating is PG. Warning: coarse language, drug use.

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On a more commercial level, VERONICA GUERIN is a straightforward attempt to tell the story of the Dublin investigative reporter whose expose of the drug scene in her city in the early 1990s resulted in her murder.

The difficulty with a film like VERONICA GUERIN is that the narrative is, in its main outlines, already known by most viewers (especially as the film commences with the reporter’s murder), so that there seems to be little reason to make this pseudo documentary.

Director Joel Schumacher does attempt to maintain tension by building to a series of very violent climaxes, but everyone knows where it is all going to end. Perhaps, as with THE STATION AGENT, we need to know more about the characters, especially Veronica Guerin herself.

Cate Blanchett does a good job with the material she has, though the insouciance with which she ignores all the threats of the criminals and the warnings of her family seems to be somewhat overdone. There is little to tell us of the real psychology of the woman, the reason she suddenly transforms from a woman doing superficial, safe pieces to a woman risking physical violence and, ultimately, death, though there are hints that she had done more meaningful work before she got involved in the story that killed her.

For all that, the film does a convincing job of showing the seamy side of life, the realities behind the drug trade. There is a great deal of crude language, considerable violence, and an ugliness about many of the scenes which many will find hard to sit through. However, it does provide an object lesson about the impact one determined woman can have.

Whether one is close to a theatre which is showing VERONICA GUERIN or not, the best advice I can give you, if it is a film you want to see, is to wait until it comes out on video.

Because of recurring graphic violence and drug abuse, an implied sexual encounter, and much rough and crude language and profanity, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III—adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R—restricted. The B.C. rating is 14A. Warning: violence, coarse language.