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Irish stew for Breakfast?
There are flakes of corn in Breakfast on Pluto, but Neil Jordan's film is like a breakfast buffet filled with elements that have sat on warming trays too long. Whether the eggs are runny or dried out, the flavor seems once removed. The talking (subtitled, yet!) robins that bookend the film seem really stupid in this post-Babe world. You'll be grateful for the two hours in which they don't appear. You can't say Cillian Murphy doesn't immerse himself in the principal role of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, whose story is told in 36 "Chapters from My Life." Left as a baby on the doorstep of Father Bernard (Liam Neeson) in Tyreelin, Ireland, in the early 1960s, Patrick grows in a foster home into an effeminate ten-year-old (Conor McEvoy), then an effeminate teenager (Murphy). It's never specified whether he considers himself a transvestite or a transsexual. His only mention of a sex change, possibly just for shock value, gets him in trouble in Catholic school, which gives him the impetus to leave home. From then on he dresses as a woman and increasingly lives as one, adapting the nickname Kitten from an obscure saint of indeterminate gender. Patrick learns early that his mother, Eily Bergin (Eva Birthistle), was
a maid who supposedly looked like Mitzi Gaynor. After leaving him she
headed for "the city that never sleeps," and "London swallowed
her up." He also finds out who his father was, robbing us The virtual civil war in Ireland occasionally spills over into England. Kitten floats above this, as she does most things in life, until it touches her directly. Breakfast on Pluto isn't nearly as episodic as you'd expect, when it spans two decades and most characters make only cameo appearances in Kitten's life. There's a smooth flow from one chapter to the next, rather than a clean break. Chapter 3 is called "My Friends: An Introduction," but it isn't. We see young Patrick playing with three other misfits but we don't begin to know the others until they grow up. Then Laurence (Seamus Reilly) plays a brief but significant role and Charlie (Ruth Negga) and Irwin (Laurence Kinlan) remain important in Patrick's life as ongoing links with home. Prostitution is the closest thing to a steady job Kitten has. Otherwise she depends on the kindness of strangers who appear in her life periodically; she even begs the police to keep her in custody longer. Leaving home she hitches a ride with a band, Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks, who sing rock songs with an Indian theme. Billy (Gavin Friday) lets Kitten play a squaw until his bandmates and the audience rebel. John-Joe (Brendan Gleeson) gets Kitten a job as a Womble, the Teletubbies of their day (1973-74), but it doesn't last long. There's more longevity in a career as a magician's assistant with Bertie (Stephen Rea), a.k.a. The Amazing Albert, who works Kitten's search for her mother, "the Phantom Lady," into the act. And so on and on, with a few good moments — an unexpected explosion, a spy fantasy — but most seeming like they've been done better elsewhere. Murphy's performance is the best and worst thing about Breakfast on Pluto. He's so good he nails everything about some drag queens that creeps people out, including other gay people. (Note that I said "some" drag queens. Many have endearing qualities. Some of my best friends..., and all that.) Director Jordan adapted the screenplay with Patrick McCabe (The Butcher
Boy) from McCabe's novel. The soundtrack is made up of pop tunes
from three decades (including "For What It's Worth," without
which any period film is incomplete), some of which (Bobby There are things to like about Breakfast on Pluto but a lot more I thought I should like but didn't. It's surprising and disappointing how much of this Irish stew falls flat. Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper. |
Breakfast on Pluto
Directed by: Neil Jordan 
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