Susan Granger’s review of “Breakfast on Pluto” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Irish director Neil Jordan confounded Hollywood with his 1992 Oscar-winning “The Crying Game.” He’s gender-bending again in this story of a small-town lad who becomes a transvestite.
Set in Treelin, Ireland in the 1970s, it’s the tender, episodic tale of Patrick Braden (Cillian Murphy), who was abandoned as a baby, the scandalously illicit, out-of-wedlock child of the parish priest (Liam Neeson) and his pretty, blonde housekeeper. Acutely aware that he’s different, Patrick assumes the eccentric identity of a free-spirited woman called “Kitten” and travels to London, determined to find his mother, the “Phantom Lady.” All he knows is that resembles actress Mitzi Gaynor. Although he’s beaten by the IRA and the victim of a nightclub bombing, he never loses his light-hearted, coquettish yet defiantly indefatigable spirit.
Based on Patrick McCabe’s novel, this meandering, visually intoxicating comic fable, photographed by Declan Quinn, evokes memories of the naive, wistful innocence of both “Forrest Gump” and “Big Fish.” But what’s most amazing is 29 year-old Cillian Murphy’s incredible versatility! He’s the same actor who played the villain in “Red Eye” and Crane/The Scarecrow in “Batman Begins.” Murphy astonishes with his chameleon skill, his bravura style and his knockout performance. He has strong support from Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson as an angry amusement park employee, Stephen Rea as a kindly magician and Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry as a treacherous john whom Kitten repulses by spraying him with Chanel No. 5. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Breakfast on Pluto” is a picaresque 7. The pop soundtrack is sensational and the whimsical title comes from a 1969 hit song in Britain.
