#thomas mccarthy

The Station Agent
Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy
USA, 2003

Watched on 28th June 2014
First viewing

I truly loved The Station Agent. I wish there were more films like it. How many films are there with a disabled central character, played by an appropriately disabled actor (the wonderful Peter Dinklage), avoiding the patronisingly “inspirational” overcoming-the-odds narrative. Finn’s achondroplastic dwarfism informs his character and the way strangers react to him – with intrigue, ridicule or pity, each one infuriating in its own way – but this is not a message film. It’s about the unlikely, sometimes strained friendships between disparate lonely people, one of whom happens to be disabled. It’s funny, melancholy, observed beautifully, and acted brilliantly by Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale.

Thomas McCarthy is an Irish Traveller, originally from County Offaly but now living in London. Like the Romani (”gypsies”), Irish Travellers are an itinerant group with rich musical traditions. McCarthy’s songs are mostly learned from his family and other Travellers, and his style of singing is a real throwback to when this kind of singing was the night’s entertainment around the campfire. I got a chance to talk with him a few years ago, and he told me that the uilleann pipes (the national bagpipe of Ireland) was made to sound like that old style of singing. A unique sound, to be sure.