A film about a friendship between a train spotting dwarf, a motormouth Cuban-American who runs a hot dog stand and a depressed, middle-aged woman might not sound like a barrel of laughs, but it is.

Fin (Peter Dinklage) inherits a rundown station depot from his recently deceased boss. His love of all things locomotive takes him to rural New Jersey in the hope of finding peace and quiet. But his dwarfism causes a stir in the town, which is exactly what he's trying to avoid. Sick and tired of being judged by his size and not who he is, he's reluctant to talk to Joe (Bobby Cannavale) who runs a snack bar a few feet away from his new home. Although Joe's endearingly persistent pursuit of Fin's friendship gradually wins him over.

Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) is also running away. In the middle of a divorce and grieving the death of her son, she pops pills to cope and is, consequently, scatty and accident prone. After nearly running Fin over twice, she apologises by turning up on his doorstep with a bottle of whiskey.

Boredom, loneliness and a sense of kindred spirit are some of the reasons why this strange threesome become friends. Gradually they ditch individual isolation for companionship, learning to help and trust each other along the way.

These characters aren't freaks, just normal people who have emotionally shut down to some extent. More accustomed to seeing dwarfs playing goblins or starring in a Terry Gilliam fantasy, it's refreshing to find a dwarf playing a lead role. Dinklage is especially good and transfers the fear and pain he's feeling onto the audience with ease. He doesn't have to tell us what being a dwarf is like because we feel it. We also sense his realisation that solitude can be a lonely place.

The Station Agent might fail in some regards because it's too nice. So what? It doesn't bask in political correctness or drown in sentimentality. We know all its characters have suffered before the film began and we don't need to witness the pain being dealt out. Winning the Bafta for Best Original Screenplay, first time director and writer Tom McCarthy is more concerned with the good things in life and how we keep a spirit alive and kicking despite the bad. It's a sad film in places, but its uplifting moments by far outweigh its depressing ones. A fresh, original gem that's laced with humour and superbly acted.

The Station Agent is released nationwide in the UK on 26 March 2004