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
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 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.
Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten"
Braden
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 (This is actually a
loyalist car bomb whos maker is later assasinated by the IRA), 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.
Murphy as "Kitten" in the peep show
booth
Next, Kitten goes to a club frequented by British soldiers and
finds romance dancing 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 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
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.
See also
References
- Kaufman, Anthony. "Blue Streak", Time Out New York,
10 November
2005. Accessed 19 July 2007.
- Stein, Ruthe. "Walking on thin gender line in search of
love", The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 December 2005. Accessed 18 July 2007.
- Full cast and crew for Breakfast on
Pluto IMDb
- "Eva and Cillian take film accolades", AOL
Entertainment U.K., 12 February 2007. Accessed 18 July 2007.
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