Breakfast on Pluto (film)

Infobox Film
name = Breakfast on Pluto

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caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Neil Jordan
producer = Neil Jordan
Stephen Woolley
writer = Neil Jordan
Pat McCabe
(adapted from the latter's novel)
starring = Cillian Murphy
Stephen Rea
Brendan Gleeson
Liam Neeson
music = Anna Jordan
cinematography = Declan Quinn
editing = Tony Lawson
distributor = Sony Pictures Classics
Pathé
released = November 16, 2005
runtime = 135 min.
country = flagicon|Ireland
language = English
gross = $828,699
website = http://www.sonyclassics.com/breakfastonpluto/

"Breakfast on Pluto" is a 2005 Irish comedy-drama film directed by Neil Jordan and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. This dark comedy stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender orphan searching for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.

Plot

The film opens with a glamourously made-up Patrick "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy) pushing a baby in a pram, flirting insouciantly with construction workers and introducing her life story. Intricately plotted, the film is divided into over 30 brief chapters, each titled onscreen and written in the voice of main character, who is often shown writing autobiographically-inspired fiction within the film.

In the fictional Irish town of Tyrellin, near the border of Northern Ireland in the 1960s, cartoon robins narrate via subtitles as Baby Patrick's mother abandons him on the doorstep of his father, Father Liam (Liam Neeson), who places him with an unloving foster mother. A young Patrick (Conor McEvoy) is shown donning a dress and lipstick, much to the chagrin of his foster family. Patrick is accepted by his close friends Charlie, Irwin and Lawrence, as well as by Lawrence's father, who tells Patrick that his biological mother looked like blonde American movie star Mitzi Gaynor and ran away to London.

The story is quickly moved ahead to Patrick's late teen years in the early '70s, with Murphy looking glam and androgynous in a curly perm hairdo, bell-bottoms, platforms and makeup. Patrick gets into trouble in school by writing explicit fiction imagining how he was conceived by Father Liam and Liam's young housekeeper Eily Bergin (Eva Birthistle) and by inquiring about where to get a sex change. Patrick renames himself/herself as "Kitten," also using the name Patricia. She approaches her father in confession, asking about her mother, but is rebuffed.

Kitten runs away from home, catching a ride with a glam rock band, Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks, and striking up a flirtation with leader Billy (musician Gavin Friday). Billy installs the lovestruck, homeless Kitten in a trailer home (though it's ambiguous whether a romance is consummated), where she discovers he's hiding guns smuggled for the Irish Republican Army. Meanwhile, Irwin (Laurence Kinlan) has begun to work with the IRA, much to the dismay of his now-girlfriend Charlie (Ruth Negga). Kitten dismisses Irwin's politics as "serious, serious, serious," but after Lawrence (Seamus Reilly) is killed by police detonating a suspected IRA car bomb, she tosses the IRA gun cache into a lake. Billy abandons Kitten to flee the IRA, while Kitten manages to talk her way out of being shot.

Kitten next journeys to London to search for her mother. Initial inquiries prove fruitless, and penniless, she finds shelter in a tiny cottage in a park, only to find that she's in a children's entertainment park for The Wombles. She gets a job as a singing, dancing Womble, but immediately loses it when her sponsor, co-worker (Brendan Gleeson), punches their boss. Forced into prostitution, she is violently attacked by her first client (Bryan Ferry), saving herself from strangulation by spraying him in the eyes with Chanel No. 5 perfume.

At a diner, magician Bertie Vaughan (Stephen Rea) asks to hear about what Kitten is writing in her notebook. She explains that it's the story of "The Phantom Lady" who was "swallowed up" by the big city, then reveals that it's the story of the mother she is seeking. Bertie hires her to be his magician's assistant, exploiting her life story in a hypnosis act. The two take a romantic day trip, but when Bertie leans in to kiss Kitten, she stops him, explaining that she's not really a girl. Bertie says that he already knew this, yet he doesn't kiss her. Soon, Charlie finds Bertie's show and, feeling Kitten's role in the show is derogatory, takes Kitten away.

Next, Kitten goes to a club frequented by British soldiers and finds romance dancing with a soldier, only to be injured when the club is bombed by the IRA. When police discover that Kitten is biologically male and Irish, she is arrested as a suspected terrorist. Beaten and prevented from sleeping by British police, she writes a hyperbolic statement, shown in a fantasy sequence where, in an Emma Peel-style catsuit, Kitten renders IRA conspirators helpless with her bombshell sexuality and sprays of her trusty Chanel No. 5. The cops soften, realizing that she is innocent, and let her go.

Kitten is again forced to turn tricks, but is saved by one of the cops who interrogated her (Ian Hart). He brings her to a peep show where she joins the dancers' collective and transforms herself into a high femme blonde. Her repentant father finds her in her peep show booth, and in a scene that mirrors the confessional scene from the beginning of the film, professes his love and tells Kitten where to find her mother. She goes to her mother's house posing as a telephone company market researcher and discovers a younger half-brother whose name is also Patrick. She faints upon meeting her mother, but after reviving does not reveal herself as the abandoned son.

When Irwin is killed by the IRA and Kitten goes home to tend to a pregnant Charlie, they are sheltered by Father Liam. But the town reacts against the unwed mother and her transgendered friend by firebombing the parish house. Kitten and Charlie flee to London. In the final scene, they run into Kitten's mother Eily and little Patrick at the doctor's office, where Charlie is getting post-partum care. Eily is pregnant again. Kitten is friendly, but still doesn't reveal her true identity. She seems very happy with Charlie and the baby. The robins wrap up the story with irreverent narration.

Cast

*Cillian Murphy as Patrick/Patricia "Kitten" Braden
*Liam Neeson as Father Liam
*Stephen Rea as Bertie Vaughan
*Brendan Gleeson as John Joe Kenny
*Gavin Friday as Billy Hatchett
*Ruth Negga as Charlie
*Laurence Kinlan as Irwin
*Eva Birthistle as Eily Bergin
*Ian Hart as PC Wallis
*Steven Waddington as Inspector Routledge
*Ruth McCabe as Ma Braden
*Liam Cunningham as 1st Biker (who introduces song "Breakfast on Pluto")
*Patrick McCabe as Schoolmaster Peepers Egan
*Conor McEvoy as Patrick Braden (at ten years)

Production

To prepare for the lead role of Kitten, Cillian Murphy studied women's body language and for a few weeks met with a drag queen who instructed him and took him out clubbing with friends.Kaufman, Anthony. [http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/7462/blue-streak "Blue Streak"] , "Time Out New York", 10 November 2005. Accessed 19 July 2007.]

Neil Jordan and Pat McCabe made big changes to the story in their adaptation of the novel for the silver screen. In the book, the protagonist is called "Pussy," but Jordan and McCabe rename her "Kitten" in the film. Unlike the highly sexual Pussy, who is sexually involved with numerous male and female characters in some rather kinky situations as well as a few long-term relationships, Kitten doesn't even kiss another character on the lips. One sexual encounter for hire is strongly implied, but Kitten is not shown being overtly sexual with anyone on screen. Kitten's flirtatious relationships with the series of male characters she meets throughout the film are never shown or strongly implied to have been consummated, leaving the yearning main character unrequited.

The seaside scene between Kitten and Bertie (Stephen Rea) was considered by some to be an allusion to director Jordan's earlier film "The Crying Game",Stein, Ruthe. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/23/DDGOIGBLJN1.DTL&type=movies "Walking on thin gender line in search of love"] , "The San Francisco Chronicle", 23 December 2005. Accessed 18 July 2007.] which also involved a transgendered major character, the IRA, and actor Stephen Rea. In "The Crying Game", Rea's character doesn't realize that the woman he has fallen for and become sexually involved with is biologically male. In "Breakfast on Pluto", Kitten confesses that she's "not a girl" before Rea's character can kiss her, and he says kindly that he already knew, but does not follow through with the kiss.

The author of the novel upon which the film is based, co-screenwriter Patrick McCabe, has a cameo in the film as Kitten's creative writing teacher. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411195/fullcredits#cast Full cast and crew for "Breakfast on Pluto"] IMDb] Declan Burke also played his part as the leading extra.

Awards and nominations

For his portrayal of Kitten, Cillian Murphy won the 2007 IFTA Award for Best Actor [http://entertainment.aol.co.uk/eva-and-cillian-take-film-accolades/article/20070210035709990004 "Eva and Cillian take film accolades"] , AOL Entertainment U.K., 12 February 2007. Accessed 18 July 2007.] and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

Neil Jordan also won the 2007 IFTA for Best Director and Jordan and McCabe took home the Best Script IFTA. [http://entertainment.aol.co.uk/eva-and-cillian-take-film-accolades/article/20070210035709990004 "Eva and Cillian take film accolades"] , AOL Entertainment U.K., 12 February 2007. Accessed 18 July 2007.]

ee also

* Cross-dressing in film and television
* Don Partridge

References

External links

* [http://www.sonyclassics.com/breakfastonpluto/ Official site]
*
* [http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/dvd_review.asp?ID=913 Slant Magazine Film Review by Keith Uhlich]
* [http://maguiresmovies.blogspot.com/2006/01/interview-neil-jordan-pat-mccabe-rocky.html Interview with Patrick McCabe and Neil Jordan] (January 2006)