The Station Agent (2003)

Finbar (Peter Dinklage) inherits an unused train station. He seems content to live there, reading about trains, walking the rails and watching trains go by, but a few people in the area keep trying to make friends.

Joe (Bobby Cannavale), who's supposed to be running his dad's food truck until the old man feels better, but that situation persists. Joe is loud and nosy in a way that would be even more obnoxious if you thought he was acting that way on purpose, rather than just oblivious. Cannavale's enthusiasm and "big golden retriever" energy is the source of most of the humor in the film, especially contrasted with Dinklage playing Finbar as very quiet and reserved, prone to answering questions with one word or less if he can get away with it. Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) is a divorced painter that nearly hits Finbar with her car twice in the span of minutes. Which, again, would be more annoying if it wasn't obvious she was just kind of scatterbrained.

The arc of the movie is pretty predictable. Finbar resists their initial attempts to make friends, feeling that it's out of pity or some lurid curiosity about his dwarfism. And the movie does have plenty of people staring at Fin or whispering about him behind his back in the grocery store or the bar, with Fin mostly acting as though he doesn't see/hear it.

Gradually the three become friends anyway, all of them "walking the right-of-ways" together or having meals outside Joe's truck or at Olivia's house. Then one of Fin's attempts to go outside his normal bubble ends badly (involving a young woman who works at the library, played by Michelle Williams) and Fin lashes out, resulting in his being isolated once again. But he can't go back to being a solitary person again, because he cares too much about his friends, and there's eventual reconciliation.

It seems significant, though I'm not sure how, that Finbar never rides a train at any point in the film. He reads about them, watches them go by, has a train he thinks would be the best ride (the Zephyr out of Denver), and is even convinced to train chase by Joe at one point. But he never actually uses one. I guess it's something about how he was living his life, a spectator rather than an active participant.