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Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
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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
Neil Jordan gives us another gender bending gem that plays something like Velvet Goldmine with guns and explosions.
Playful, poetic, shocking, saddening, and ultimately gratifyingly and honestly big-hearted.
The very characteristics that keep him alive and kicking are the ones that keep you at arm's length. No surprise, then, that even the satisfying and semi-satisfying conclusions to various narrative threads don't quite satisfy.
The problem is that the coy Kitten never really develops as a character and, as the film unfolds, your interest in him wanes.
I couldn't help but feel that I've already seen this character, and always portrayed in this similar manner -- fey, fanciful, indefatigable.
So horribly misconceived and shoddily structured that its good intentions are worn out in the first twenty minutes
It’s as coy and callow as you’d expect from a movie with a lead character nicknamed Kitten.
An honrobale failure, Breakfast on Pluto is a tweener, neither epic nor intimate enough, neither campy nor earnest. Though dense in ideas and images, the film is too sprawling, lacking a discernible POV.
Kitten [Murphy] is like the bouncing ball following a singalong... without adding any interpretation of her own.
This is not for everyone, Jordan's stuff never is, but if you're into good acting it's worth a look.
Murphy has played two deliciously perverse villains this year, and it’s a measure of how amazing he is as Kitten that I never once thought of those earlier antagonists.
As meals go, this Breakfast is filling. In every way, Jordan's return to action is a triumph.
In [Jordan's] new film, Breakfast on Pluto, he's trying for a much more elaborate version of [The Crying Game].
The cast, camerawork and soundtrack are outta this world, but Pluto's orbit is too erratic to make this offbeat odyssey worth the journey.
The writing, direction, music, and acting are all fantastic, but the film ends up being a little long and centers around a main character that's a little hard to embrace.
A Technicolor'd bird, flashed at the ridiculous capriciousness of life and Sartre's other people.
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