Breakfast on Pluto (film)

Breakfast on Pluto
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neil Jordan
Produced by	Alan Moloney, Neil Jordan Stephen Woolley
Screenplay by	Neil Jordan
Based on	Breakfast on Pluto by Pat McCabe
Starring	Cillian Murphy Stephen Rea Brendan Gleeson Liam Neeson
Music by	Anna Jordan
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Editing by	Tony Lawson
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics Pathé
Release date(s)	16 November 2005 (2005-11-16)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	Ireland United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$828,699

Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 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 foundling searching for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.

Plot

A glamorously made-up Patrick "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy), pushing a baby in a pram and flirting insouciantly with construction workers, introduces her life story. Intricately plotted, the film is divided over more than 30 brief chapters. In the fictional Irish town of Tyrellin, near the border of Northern Ireland in the late 1940s, cartoon robins narrate as baby Patrick's mother abandons him on the doorstep of the local parochial house where his father, Father Liam (Liam Neeson), lives. He is then placed with an unloving foster mother. A young Patrick (Conor McEvoy) is later shown donning a dress and lipstick, which angers his foster family. However, 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.

Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Braden

The story is quickly moved ahead to Patrick's late teen years in the early '70s. 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 soon 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 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 plays crazy, so that she won't be shot.

Kitten next journeys to London to search for her mother, but initial inquiries prove fruitless. Penniless, she finds shelter in a tiny cottage in a park, only to find that it's a children's entertainment park for The Wombles. She gets a job as a singing, dancing Womble, but immediately loses it when her sponsor and 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 her what she 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 about 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 Kitten explains that she's not really a girl when Bertie tries to kiss her. Bertie says that he already knew this. Soon, Charlie finds Bertie's show and takes Kitten away.

Murphy as "Kitten" in the peep show booth

Next, Kitten goes to a club frequented by British soldiers and dances with a soldier (Dominic Cooper), 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, she writes a hyperbolic statement, shown in a fantasy spy film spoof sequence. The cops soften, realizing that she is innocent, and release her. Realizing that there is no place for her to go, Kitten begs to stay in the police station, but is tossed to the street. 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 transforms herself into a high femme blonde. Her repentant father finds her and in a scene that mirrors their confessional scene, 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 her true self.

When Irwin is killed by the IRA, Kitten goes home to tend to a pregnant Charlie. However, 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 pregnant mother Eily and little Patrick at the doctor's office, where Charlie is getting post-partum care. Kitten is friendly, but still doesn't reveal her true identity. 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
• Seamus Reilly as Lawrence
• 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.

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, 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. 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 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.

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

• Cross-dressing in film and television
• Don Partridge

External links

• Official website
• Breakfast on Pluto at the Internet Movie Database
• Slant Magazine Film Review by Keith Uhlich
• Interview with Patrick McCabe and Neil Jordan (January 2006)