Based on the novel by Pat McCabe, "Breakfast on Pluto" takes us on a loopy journey through the turbulent years of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Our guide for the occasion is one Patrick "Kitten" Jordan, a hopelessly romantic transvestite who finds himself looking for love in all the wrong places.
The story begins in 1956 Ireland, when Patrick, as an infant, is left on the doorstep of a local priest who may just possibly be the father of the child. As Patrick grows up in the care of a bitter foster mother, he comes to learn that his real mother was a beautiful young woman - a dead ringer, he's told, for Mitzi Gaynor - who worked as a housekeeper for the priest, then disappeared in London not long after Patrick was born. With his effeminate mannerisms and penchant for wearing women's clothing, Patrick does not exactly fit into the highly conformist world of Irish Catholic society, and, as a result, he suffers much abuse at the hands of his less-than-understanding parochial school teachers who have no idea what to make of him. But Patrick has unlocked the secret to survival. He simply gives back as good as he gets, using sardonic humor and an air of indifference to protect himself from the ugliness and harshness of the society around him. Even if he is only laughing to cover up the hurt, at least it beats crying his eyes out at every bump in the road life throws his way.
Eventually, Patrick becomes old enough to leave home and make his own way in the world. The film relates his brief involvements with a rock-n-roll band, some IRA gun runners, and an exploitative magician, as well as his eventual journey to London to find the mother who abandoned him. While there, he has a brief stint as a streetwalker and is even arrested as the prime suspect in a dancehall firebombing. But all of these travails are just brief downpours in Patrick's life experience, and while they may dampen his mood at times, they can't extinguish his spirit.
Writer/director Neil Jordan has turned McCabe's novel into a fast paced (if overlong) film filled with warmth, humor and a sort of cockeyed optimism that helps to counterbalance some of the grim social issues (prejudice, child abandonment, terrorism) that lie along the story's periphery. The film occasionally feels aimless and episodic and some of Patrick's experiences are more compelling than others. Most of the subsidiary characters are left sketchy and underdeveloped, but that really doesn't matter all that much because Patrick has enough personality for the lot of them. And Cillian Murphy makes what could easily have been just another mincing gay stereotype into a multi-dimensional character of substance and depth. Most of the other actors (Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea et. al.) aren't given enough screen time to make much of an impression, though Neeson nicely underplays the role of Patrick's priest and father.
Patrick knows that, when the going gets tough, we all need to journey to that special place of imagination and beauty where we can find security and comfort. For Patrick, as the title suggests, that place is Pluto. However, now that that particular celestial object has lost its planetary status, I wonder if Patrick will still be traveling there to partake in the most important meal of the day.
The story begins in 1956 Ireland, when Patrick, as an infant, is left on the doorstep of a local priest who may just possibly be the father of the child. As Patrick grows up in the care of a bitter foster mother, he comes to learn that his real mother was a beautiful young woman - a dead ringer, he's told, for Mitzi Gaynor - who worked as a housekeeper for the priest, then disappeared in London not long after Patrick was born. With his effeminate mannerisms and penchant for wearing women's clothing, Patrick does not exactly fit into the highly conformist world of Irish Catholic society, and, as a result, he suffers much abuse at the hands of his less-than-understanding parochial school teachers who have no idea what to make of him. But Patrick has unlocked the secret to survival. He simply gives back as good as he gets, using sardonic humor and an air of indifference to protect himself from the ugliness and harshness of the society around him. Even if he is only laughing to cover up the hurt, at least it beats crying his eyes out at every bump in the road life throws his way.
Eventually, Patrick becomes old enough to leave home and make his own way in the world. The film relates his brief involvements with a rock-n-roll band, some IRA gun runners, and an exploitative magician, as well as his eventual journey to London to find the mother who abandoned him. While there, he has a brief stint as a streetwalker and is even arrested as the prime suspect in a dancehall firebombing. But all of these travails are just brief downpours in Patrick's life experience, and while they may dampen his mood at times, they can't extinguish his spirit.
Writer/director Neil Jordan has turned McCabe's novel into a fast paced (if overlong) film filled with warmth, humor and a sort of cockeyed optimism that helps to counterbalance some of the grim social issues (prejudice, child abandonment, terrorism) that lie along the story's periphery. The film occasionally feels aimless and episodic and some of Patrick's experiences are more compelling than others. Most of the subsidiary characters are left sketchy and underdeveloped, but that really doesn't matter all that much because Patrick has enough personality for the lot of them. And Cillian Murphy makes what could easily have been just another mincing gay stereotype into a multi-dimensional character of substance and depth. Most of the other actors (Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea et. al.) aren't given enough screen time to make much of an impression, though Neeson nicely underplays the role of Patrick's priest and father.
Patrick knows that, when the going gets tough, we all need to journey to that special place of imagination and beauty where we can find security and comfort. For Patrick, as the title suggests, that place is Pluto. However, now that that particular celestial object has lost its planetary status, I wonder if Patrick will still be traveling there to partake in the most important meal of the day.