There’s a thin line between innocence and willful ignorance. Breakfast on Pluto stomps all over it.
Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:112
Fresh:63
Rotten:49
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Well-acted if monotonous drama about a transvestite prostitute in London during the 1970s.
Synopsis: Reuniting with writer Patrick McCabe, who co-scripted his acclaimed 1997 film THE BUTCHER BOY, Neil Jordan delivers another entertaining spectacle of a motion picture. Set in the United Kingdom... Reuniting with writer Patrick McCabe, who co-scripted his acclaimed 1997 film THE BUTCHER BOY, Neil Jordan delivers another entertaining spectacle of a motion picture. Set in the United Kingdom during the tumultuous 1960s and ‘70s, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO tells the story of Patrick "Kitten" Braden (an electrifying Cillian Murphy), an orphan from a small Irish town who dreams of escaping his drab surroundings. Though his orphan status is enough to make him an outsider, Patrick's gleeful decision to become the cross-dressing Androgynous Kitten sends him into the outside world for good. He ends up at the trailer home of traveling musician Billy Rock (Gavin Friday), who is hiding weapons used by the IRA in a series of vicious attacks. After an unexpected tragedy, Kitten says farewell to Ireland and heads for the glamorous, rough-and-tumble streets of London, where she faces hatred and hardship in equal measure. Through it all, Kitten somehow retains her unwavering spirit, teaching a valuable lesson about staying hopeful and optimistic in the face of harsh degradation. Murphy's portrayal of the fiercely flamboyant Kitten is a sight to behold. Beautiful as a man, Murphy's appearance takes on an even more ethereal glow as a woman. Adding greater weight to the proceedings are the performances from Jordan regulars Liam Neeson and Stephen Rea, as well as Ruth Negga, Laurence Kinlan, and real-life musician Friday. Filled with a staggering amount of great pop songs from that legendary era, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO is an inspiring ode to individual human spirit. [More]
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Laurence Kinlan, Stephen Rea
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Laurence Kinlan, Stephen Rea
Director: Neil Jordan
Director: Neil Jordan
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for Breakfast on Pluto
Breakfast on Pluto may seem a fairy tale at times (no pun intended), but this Kitten has claws.
Like Kitten and everything else about Breakfast on Pluto, it's altogether too overstated and obvious, but at least it doesn't pretend to have any significance whatsoever.
Breakfast on Pluto has its tongue lodged so firmly in its cheek that it nearly chokes on it.
Breakfast on Pluto, like its cross-dressing heroine, is appealing yet irritating, fun company at times but just as often a bore, occasionally quite touching yet frequently fey and self-indulgent.
[Jordan] successfully grafts two Irish literary modes, snappy social satire and gloomy dirge.
Perhaps too audacious for some and too coy for others, Breakfast on Pluto is one of those mercurial movies where you really have no idea where it'll take you next. Like its star, it's smart, mischievous and fearless.
Held together by a brilliant fiber of obscure pop songs from the era, Breakfast on Pluto may be Jordan's most agreeable mixture of wisdom and whimsy.
It's a champagne cocktail of a film, with a giddy performance by Cillian Murphy carbonating it from within.
... despite the movie's bouncy ebullience (courtesy of a terrific period soundtrack) and dashes of fantasy, the film quickly becomes an endurance test.
If you're in the mood for an edgy, raucous, music-driven gender-bender, rent Hedwig and the Angry Inch instead.
Jordan is the kind of director you follow out of trust, even when his movies aren't perfect.
Like Cillian Murphy in high heels, Breakfast On Pluto totters along with unnerving hesitancy.
Cillian Murphy makes an uncomfortably beautiful woman in this rambling tale that never congeals.
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