Written by Neil Jordan And Patrick McCabe
Directed by Neil Jordan
Kitten: "Not many people can take the tale of Patrick Braden, aka St. Kitten, who strutted the catwalks, face lit by a halo of flashbulbs as "oh!" she shrieks, "I told you, from my best side darlings.""
My final LGBT themed post for Pride Month and I had to pick another movie. I've always had a soft spot for this movie and rewatched it late last night. When it comes to performances, this one doesn't get talked enough with Cillian Murphy.
In this movie, Murphy played a transwoman named Patricia "Kitten" Braden. At the start of the movie, we see a woman named Eily Bergin (Eva Birthistle) leave baby Patrick with his father, who happened to be a priest named Father Liam (Liam Neeson). The father then left baby Patrick with a foster family.
The foster family - Ma Braden (Ruth McCabe) and daughter, Caroline (Charlene McKenna) weren't exactly the most understanding of people as Patrick rebelled in school and then began to make the steps to transition into Kitten after leaving home. From that point onwards, Kitten's adulthood got very chaotic.
Kitten was on a mission to track down her biological family while at the same time, she became a supportive system for her friend, Charlie (Ruth Negga) while going through some rather volatile relationships with men. Kitten had quite a few male admirers but most of them were just bad news for her.
Kitten's relationship with glam rock singer Billy Hatchet (Gavin Friday) ended badly when his IRA connections boiled to the surface. Then there was working in a Wombles theme park with the punch happy John Joe Kenny (Brendan Gleeson), a disastrous time as a prostitute, being a hypnotist (Stephen Rea) assistant and dancing with an English soldier (Dominic Cooper) resulting in a club being bombed.
The last segment of the movie took a more personal tone. Kitten got a nice reunion with her father (minus the peep show aspect) while also coming into contact with her mother and helping Charlie through her pregnancy. It's almost a shame that Kitten didn't reveal who she was to her mother because she had some nice scenes with her half brother but at least the movie did end on a positive note for her.
- In the book, the nickname is actually "Pussy" but honestly, I think changing it to "Kitten" was a better idea. There's also a Dalek at one point in the movie.
- Other actors included in this movie were Liam Cunningham, Laurence Kinlan as well as writer Patrick McCabe.
- Standout music: The Rubettes Sugar Baby Love and Joe Dolan's You're Such A Good Looking Woman.
- Chronology: Started in 1958 in County Cavan before moving to London in the 1970s during the Troubles.
Breakfast On Pluto is an absolute joy of a movie. Insanely funny, totally chaotic and often quite touching. It's undeniably one of the best performances that Cillian Murphy has delivered in his career.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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