Have you heard the one about the dwarf, the clinically depressed artist and the goofy Cuban?  It sounds like the setup for the worst joke imaginable, but under the steady hand of debut writer-director Thomas McCarthy, The Station Agent becomes a leisurely paced character study about three very incomplete people who find wholeness in each other's company.  Yeah, it sounds like a ridiculously sappy premise, but it works quite well thanks to solid efforts both in front of and behind the camera.

Fin(n) is a popular name at the cinema this week, though Jack Black will probably get way more attention for his role than 4'6" Peter Dinklage (Human Nature), who plays Finbar McBride, a train aficionado in Hoboken, New Jersey who takes refuge in the backroom of a model shop.  It's there the tiny man repairs tiny trains in solitude, a welcome respite from the looks and the taunts he endures ("Hey, where's Snow White?") when he steps out into the real world.

When Fin's boss (Paul Benjamin) at the store dies, he finds himself out of a job, but also the surprise recipient of an inheritance which includes a piece of land in rural Newfoundland that's home to an abandoned train depot. Hoping to enjoy the solitude, as well as the proximity of train tracks to his new digs, Fin packs his bag and makes for Jersey.  But instead of peace and quiet, Fin gets Joe Oramas (Bobby Cannavale), a loquacious Cuban-American running his ailing father's sandwich truck near the depot; and Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson, All the Real Girls), an accident-prone painter who nearly runs Fin over on two separate occasions.

Of course, Fin is miserable about Joe and Olivia and their inability to leave him the hell alone, as he is obviously not well equipped to deal with people.  But he eventually opens up, as we learn more about what makes Fin and his new friends tick.  Along the way, we're treated to a perfect score from Stephen Trask (Hedwig & the Angry Inch), lovely photography from German cinematographer Oliver Bokelberg (The Next Big Thing) and smaller but still effective roles via Michelle Williams (Prozac Nation), who plays a librarian; and Raven Goodwin (Lovely & Amazing), whose young Cleo can't quite grasp the fact that Fin isn't a kid like her.

I'm hoping Agent will be the film that launches a bunch of careers.  I'm not sure what kind of demand there might be for diminutive actors (though Tom Cruise has a pretty lucrative thing going on), but Dinklage is very good here, giving a fairly layered performance with more expression than you see from most male leads these days (he's probably best known for the Will Ferrell attack scene in the trailer for the upcoming Elf).  Cannavale has logged a bunch of memorable performances on television shows like Kingpin, 100 Centre Street and Third Watch, but he has never been more likable than he is in Agent.

Clarkson already has it going on (she won one of Agent's three awards at Sundance – it was also the audience's choice for Best Drama and it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award), but Boston Public actor-turned-writer/director McCarthy comes off as the talent with the most to gain from Agent.  His debut is thoughtful, not agonizingly lengthy, and extremely subtle without being pretentious; it plays like Ulee's Gold, except with trains instead of bees.

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for language and some drug content