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Filmmaker Neil Jordan seems to seek out stories built around protagonists who are outsiders struggling to function in inhospitable and often openly hostile environments. And in Patrick Braden, Breakfast on Pluto's protagonist, he's found just such a character. Abandoned by his mother while still an infant, Patrick grows up in foster homes and develops some sexual-identity issues. Eventually he leaves his small Irish community and goes to London, where he works as a cross-dressing cabaret singer while trying to find his mother, who is rumored to be living there. At one point reduced to street prostitution, Patrick -- who prefers to be known as "Kitten" -- refuses to surrender his individuality and remains true to his own nature, which is delicately superficial. Jordan surrounds Kitten (played as an adult by Cillian Murphy) with vaguely Dickensian characters, among them a street-smart vagabond (Brendan Gleeson), a second-rate magician (Stephen Rea), and a kindly priest (Liam Neeson). He also plunges Kitten into some colorful, albeit unlikely, situations: At one point, following the bombing of a London pub in which he's been working, Kitten is believed to be an IRA soldier. As in The Crying Game, Jordan uses the Irish-English "troubles" of the 1970s as an underlying stark reality; but since this is Kitten's story, there's much more whimsy at play. This would not have worked if not for Murphy's astonishing performance, which makes this unpredictable movie a rewarding change of pace. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

An Irish boy becomes an emotional and sexual outcast as the 1960s fade into the 1970s in this period drama from director Neil Jordan. When he was just a baby in the early '60s, Patrick Braden (Conor McEvoy) was abandoned by his mother and left on the doorstep of a church overseen by Father Bernard (Liam Neeson). Placed in a foster home, sensitive Patrick doesn't much care for the emotionally chilly attitude of his new "family," and psychologically buffers himself against the world by writing stories that make fun of Father Bernard and the other authority figures in his life. As he grows into adulthood, Patrick (played as an adult by Cillian Murphy) also discovers that he enjoys dressing in women's clothes and prefers the company of men, and as a teenager he falls into an affair with Billy Hatchet (Gavin Friday), a nightclub performer who also runs guns for the Irish Republican Army. In the early '70s, Patrick -- who has since taken on the drag name "Kitten" -- makes his way to London, where he becomes involved with Bertie (Stephen Rea), a small-time nightclub magician who gives the young man a place to say, a sense of security, and a job as his on-stage assistant. However, Patrick's idyllic life with Bertie proves short-lived when his old friends come to town on IRA "business." Breakfast on Pluto also features a supporting performance from former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396117143
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Subtitled
• Time: 2:09:00
• Sales Rank: 18,800

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