July 31 2006
Film Review: Breakfast on Pluto
posted by Steven Shaw at 1:48 pm
Breakfast On Pluto Directed by Neil Jordan. Starring Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Gavin Friday, Stephen Rea. Rating: R13 – Sexual references, offensive language and violence
That Cillian Murphy sure gets around. The young Irish actor (okay he’s 30, but he still looks like a baby) has been making inroads into Hollywood, appearing in films like Batman Begins and Wes Craven’s disappointing airborne thriller Redeye. He also played the lead in Danny Boyle’s disturbing thriller 28 Days Later. But international fame has also given him the freedom to work on more independent films that reflect Irish history.
One of them, The Wind That Shakes The Barley by UK director Ken Loach, played opening night of the International Film Festival in Auckland. It was about the early years of the IRA. It’s extremely well made and historically important, but its entertainment value was overshadowed by unsettling images of violence and tragedy.
The other recent Irish film to star Murphy is Neil Jordan’s Breakfast On Pluto. It’s based on a novel by Pat McCabe, who also wrote The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan also directed that one in 1997).
Set in the early 1970s, it’s the story of Patrick Braden, a cross-dresser who goes under the name of Patricia or “Kitten”.
Kitten is somewhat displaced, having been abandoned as a baby and left on the doorstep of a local priest (Liam Neeson). He surrounds himself in fantasy to protect himself from reality, imagining that his mother, who took off to London, looks like 1950s starlet Mitzi Gaynor. He refers to her as the “Phantom Lady”.
He meets up with a touring band and joins in, partly as concubine to lead singer Billy Hatchet, but he also gets onstage for the first time, dressed as an American Indian squaw and singing the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood duet “Sand”. It further fuels his make-believe world and he eventually makes it across to London, to search for his mother. He works as a magician’s assistant and in a peepshow. Oh, and as a womble. Mustn’t forget the womble.
Through all this, Kitten’s trusting nature and optimistic outlook verges on madness. Murphy plays the part as very subdued, almost as a victim. But he’s not a victim and never allows himself to be.
The film shows a cruel side of life, but for the most part it’s as optimistic as Kitten’s outlook, backed up by some songs of the day, including The Rubettes’ “Sugar Baby Love”, Harry Nilsson’s “Me and My Arrow”, and Van Morrison’s “Cypress Avenue”.
An odd film, it touches on themes that Jordan presented way back in 1992’s The Crying Game: gender confusion and the Irish struggle against British rule.
It’s a little long at 120 minutes, especially as the loose ends are tied up well before the credits roll. But the performances are great and the story unique enough to make for entertaining viewing. Watch out for Bryan Ferry’s appearance as a dodgy Londoner.