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Breakfast on Pluto (film)

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Breakfast on Pluto
UK theatrical release poster
Directed byNeil Jordan
Written by
Based onBreakfast on Pluto
by Patrick McCabe
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDeclan Quinn
Edited byTony Lawson
Music byAnna Jordan
Production
companies
Distributed byPathé Distribution[1]
Release dates
  • 3 September 2005 (2005-09-03) (Telluride Film Festival)
  • 13 January 2006 (2006-01-13) (United Kingdom and Ireland)
Running time
129 minutes[1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3.9 million[2]

Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 comedy-drama film directed by Neil Jordan from a screenplay he co-wrote with Patrick McCabe, based on McCabe's 1998 novel of the same name. Set during the Troubles in the 1970s, the film stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender woman foundling who leaves her small Irish town for London in search of her long-lost mother. Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson and Liam Neeson also star.

Plot

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In 1958, in the fictional small Irish town of Tyrellin, County Cavan, Eily Bergin leaves her newborn baby, Patrick Braden, on the doorstep of the local parochial house, where the baby's father, Father Liam, lives. Patrick is placed with an unloving foster mother. Assigned male at birth, young Patrick dons a dress and lipstick, which angers her foster family. Patrick is accepted by her close friends, Charlie, Irwin and Lawrence, as well as by Lawrence's father, who tells Patrick that Eily resembled American actress Mitzi Gaynor.

In her late teens in the 1970s, Patrick gets into trouble in school for writing an explicit story imagining how she was conceived by her parents and inquiring about where to undergo a sex change. Patrick comes out as transgender and renames herself Patricia "Kitten" Braden. In confession, she asks Father Liam about Eily but is rebuffed.

Kitten runs away from home, catching a ride with a glam rock band, Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks, and flirting with frontman Billy. He sets Kitten up in a trailer, where she discovers he is hiding guns for the IRA. Meanwhile, Irwin has begun to work with the IRA, much to his now-girlfriend Charlie's dismay. Kitten scoffs at Irwin's politics, but after Lawrence is killed by police detonating a suspected loyalist car bomb, she tosses their gun cache into a lake. Billy abandons Kitten to flee the IRA, forcing her to face the IRA men alone. Her lack of connection to their politics saves her from being murdered.

Kitten heads to London in search of Eily, but initial inquiries prove fruitless. Penniless, she finds shelter in a tiny cottage in a park, only to find that it is a Wombles children's theme park. Kitten takes a job as a singing and dancing Womble, but immediately loses it when her sponsor and co-worker punches their boss. Forced into prostitution, she is strangled by her first client, narrowly escaping by spraying Chanel No. 5 in his eyes.

At a diner, mild-mannered magician Bertie Vaughan asks Kitten what she is writing in her notebook. She explains it is a story about the mother she is seeking, whom Kitten dubs the "Phantom Lady". Intrigued, Bertie hires her as his assistant, turning her life story into a hypnosis act. One day, Bertie tries to kiss Kitten, and she explains that she is transgender, something he already knew. Soon, Charlie finds Bertie's show and takes Kitten away.

While dancing with an English soldier at a nightclub, Kitten is injured when the club is bombed by the IRA. After the police discover that Kitten is transgender and Irish, she is arrested on suspicion of terrorism. At the police station, Wallis beats her up while Routledge urges her to make a statement; Kitten fabricates a story about how she infiltrated a terrorist cell, dressed in black leather and armed with a Chanel spray bottle. Realising she is innocent, the police release her a week later.

Kitten is again forced to turn tricks until Wallis sympathetically brings her to a peep show, where she dons a blonde wig. Her repentant father finds her in her booth, professing his love and telling Kitten where to find Eily. She goes to her house posing as a telephone company market researcher and discovers a younger half-brother, also named Patrick. She faints upon meeting Eily, but after reviving does not reveal her identity.

Kitten learns that Charlie was arrested and used as leverage against Irwin to reveal IRA activities. As a result, Irwin is killed by the IRA, and Kitten returns to Tyrellin to tend to a pregnant Charlie and reconcile with her priest father. The town reacts against the unwed pregnant mother and her transgender friend by firebombing the parish house one night, but the two are rescued by Father Liam.

Kitten and Charlie head back to London, with Father Liam promising to visit frequently. While accompanying Charlie to a hospital for a postpartum checkup, Kitten encounters little Patrick, who reveals that Eily is pregnant. Still not revealing her identity, Kitten sees Eily in the distance and tells Patrick that she hopes that Eily's next baby is a girl.

Cast

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Production

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To prepare for the lead role of Kitten, Cillian Murphy studied women's body language and for a few weeks met with a transvestite who instructed him and took him out clubbing with friends.[3]

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 is never shown to engage in kissing or any other sexual behaviour of any kind. 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 was considered by some to be an allusion to director Jordan's earlier film The Crying Game,[4] which also involved a transgender major character, the IRA, and actor Stephen Rea. In The Crying Game, Rea's character doesn't realise that the woman he has fallen for and becomes sexually involved with is transgender. 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.[5]

Reception

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Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 123 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Well-acted if monotonous drama about a transvestite prostitute in London during the 1970s."[6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[7]

Accolades

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For his portrayal of Kitten, Murphy won the 2007 IFTA Award for Best Actor[8] and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Jordan also won the 2007 IFTA for Best Director and Jordan and McCabe took home the Best Script IFTA.[8]

Awards
Award Category Name Outcome
European Film Awards Best Actor Cillian Murphy Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Cillian Murphy Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards Best Foreign Dramatic Trailer Nominated
Best Voice Over Nominated
Irish Film and Television Awards Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Feature Film Cillian Murphy Won
Best Director Neil Jordan Won
Best Hair & Make-Up for Film Glynn, Lorraine, Lynn Johnson Won
Best Script for Film Neil Jordan, Patrick McCabe Won
Best Irish Film (Audience Award) Nominated
Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film Stephen Rea Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film Ruth Negga Nominated
Best Cinematography Declan Quinn Nominated
Best Costume Design for Film Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh Nominated
Best Film Alan Moloney, Neil Jordan, Stephen Woolley Nominated
Best Production Design for Film Tom Conroy Nominated
Ljubljana International Film Festival Audience Award Neil Jordan Won
National Board of Review Special Recognition For excellence in filmmaking Won
Satellite Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Cillian Murphy Nominated

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Breakfast on Pluto". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  2. ^ "Breakfast on Pluto (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  3. ^ Kaufman, Anthony. "Blue Streak" Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Time Out New York, 10 November 2005. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  4. ^ Stein, Ruthe. "Walking on thin gender line in search of love" Archived 7 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 December 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
  5. ^ Full cast and crew for Breakfast on Pluto Archived 8 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine IMDb
  6. ^ "Breakfast on Pluto". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 26 October 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  7. ^ "Breakfast on Pluto Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Eva and Cillian take film accolades" Archived 13 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, AOL Entertainment U.K., 12 February 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2007.

Further reading

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