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BREAKFAST ON PLUTO Send This Review to a Friend
Shown at both the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, “Breakfast on Pluto” is a charmingly quirky film that sparkles with one of the year’s best male performances. Actually it is a male performance as a female. Cillian Murphy plays Patrick, who is left on a doorstep as a baby in Ireland and grows up to be a transvestite self-nicknamed Kitten, and Murphy is thoroughly winsome in the role, which affords a chance to show heart as well as stamina in the face of persecution.
As directed by Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Patrick McCabe based on McCabe’s novel, “Breakfast on Pluto” sweeps Patrick along on a journey through life that involves searching for his mother in swinging London, ultimate recognition by his father and a false accusation of being involved in a bombing. Patrick’s saga takes him into performing in a rock band and a love affair. Naturally, there is the intolerance a transvestite faces and Patrick must have the strength to cope.
The situation is complicated by his father being a priest, played by Liam Neeson in one of his typically fine performances. Jordan infuses the film with adventure and humor, warmth and hostility. But Patrick has a sunny disposition in the face of whatever adversity that confronts him, and he represents the best of humanity in the most complicated of worlds. The director has the nerve to engage in the whimsy of having birds talking with subtitles interpreting their chirps.
Murphy is extraordinary throughout and despite various effective supporting performances, including Stephen Rea as a magician, he is the one who really carries the movie, and Jordan knows it, as evidenced by the opportunities given Murphy to win our hearts. He absolutely deserves to be considered at awards time. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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