Synopsis

Patrick "Kitten" Braden, is an orphan from a small Irish town who dreams of escaping his drab surroundings and finding his mother. Though his orphan status is enough to make him an outsider, Patrick’s 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, 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 manages to retains her unwavering spirit, teaching a valuable lesson about staying hopeful and optimistic in the face of harsh degradation. No matter what may come her way, from an attempt on her life to a pub bombing, "Kitten" maintains her dream.

What The Critics Say

"It's a champagne cocktail of a film, with a giddy performance by Cillian Murphy carbonating it from within." Shawn Levy OREGONIAN "... the movie is a must-see with its tour-de-force performance by Cillian Murphy." Harvey S Karten COMPUSERVE "Murphy is an actor to watch. Even in heels." Peter Travers ROLLING STONE "Playful, poetic, shocking, saddening, and ultimately gratifyingly and honestly big-hearted." Glenn Kenny PREMIERE MAGAZINE "It does one of the best things a movie can do: It makes you feel good." Eric D Snider ERICDSNIDER.COM "Effortlessly nailing coquettish mannerisms and employing a hilarious come-hither vocal quality, Murphy is magnetizing, fascinating, and eminently likeable." Gabriel Shanks MIXED REVIEWS

"As played by Murphy in what is an excellent performance, Kitten is sort of like a transvestite superhero--able to overcome impossible situations and look fabulous while doing it." Christopher Smith BANGOR DAILY NEWS MAINE "Breakfast on Pluto is definitely one of the most unusual, compelling films I have seen in quite some time." Staci Layne Wilson BUZZINE MAGAZINE "Enjoyable drama that's both darkly funny and emotionally engaging." Matthew Turner VIEWLONDON "As meals go, this Breakfast is filling. In every way, Jordan's return to action is a triumph." Pam Grady REEL.COM "Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto bursts onto the screen ablaze with more color, more ideas, more nerve, more invention and more heart than just about anything imaginable." Ken Hanke MOUNTAIN XPRESS ASHEVILLE

The Original Picture Soundtrack CD

Now you can not only enjoy Neil Jordan's latest film "Breakfast On Pluto" you can re-live the magic through the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD which is available on the Warner label in all good retail outlets. The flamboyant music scene of the day is reflected in more than just the song selections. For example, smooth rock crooner Bryan Ferry is cast as a sinister Mercedes-driving assailant. The on-screen bar band 'Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks' synthesizes various strains of entertainingly wretched pop, and Billy Hatchet is played by onetime punk hero Gavin Friday who in the films sings a duet with Cillian Murphy. The music is a central, powerful force throughout the movie and contains some classic 70's tracks such as 'Children Of The Revolution', '(How Much Is) That Doggy In The Window?', 'You're Breaking My Heart' and the Dusty Springfield classic 'The Windmills Of Your Mind'. Whether you've seen the film or not, this is an exceptional OST CD which will enhance your film and listening pleasure. 4 STARS.

1. Sugar Baby Love 2. You're Such A Good Looking Woman 3. You're Breakin' My Heart 4. Breakfast On Pluto 5. Me & My Arrow 6. Honey 7. That Doggie In The Window? 8. Caravan 9. Feelings 10. The Windmills Of Your Mind 11. Sand 12. Children Of The Revolution 13. Wig Wam Bam

The Inside Story In 1982 Irish director Neil Jordan wrote and directed his first film, the crime drama "Angel". It starred a young actor by the name of Stephen Rea. A decade later in 1992, after disappointing results with "High Spirits" (1988) and "We're No Angels" (1989), Jordan bounced back with the critically acclaimed film, "The Crying Game" It too starred Stephen Rea. Jordon was honoured with numerous awards including the: Academy Award; Independent Spirit Award; New York Film Critics Circle and, National Society of Film Critics Award. In 1996 Jordan wrote and directed another film the storyline of which also focussed on the IRA. The film starred Liam Neeson and yes, Stephen Rea was in the cast. The film was "Michael Collins". In 1999 Jordan wowed fans and critics with "The End of the Affair". It starred Julianne Moore, Ralph Fiennes and Stephen Rea, co-starred Ian Hart and Jordans screenplay received a BAFTA Award. In 2005 Jordon wrote and directed "Breakfast On Pluto" an adaptation of the Pat McCabe novel of the same name. Included in the cast are Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson and Ian Hart. It seems that Jordan knows exactly what is needed for a winning formula when it comes to producing winners at the box-office and that is evident in his use of actors whom have a proven record in his films. It is fair to say Neil Jordan is on another winner. His casting of Cillian Murphy at the least could best be described as a complete stroke of genius. In what many would see as a role most difficult, Cillian Murphy (as Rea and Neeson did), has produced a tour de force performance in the lead role as Patrick "Kitten" Braden. Surprisingly acting was not Murphy's original career choice. His father was a school inspector, his mother a French teacher and Cillian had ambitions of becoming a lawyer. It was while attending Presentation Brothers College, Cork, that Murphy joined a Concordia Theatre workshop. He later appeared as Pig in their production of "Disco Pig". The story goes that he received rave reviews and started skipping school to appear in the production when it went touring. Gradually his ambitions to act took over from his law studies. Outside of Britian and Ireland, the name Cillian Murphy meant little to cinemagoers until, in 2002 he came to everyones attention as Jim, the bike courier in the film "28 Days Later". Here's an aside. Also in the cast of "28 Days Later" was a young actress who would soon become a well known face, Naomie Harris. Doesn't ring a bell? Well it should. Harris would go on to appear in "After the Sunset" (2004), 'Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" (2005), "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (2006) and "Miami Vice" (2006). But back to Jordan's latest film which has some parrallel's with "The Crying Game" for both "The Crying Game" and "Breakfast On Pluto" deal with transvestitism, terrorism and have that IRA connection. The film also begs the question, 'How does somebody survive a deeply aggressive world just by being himself?" It's a question that immediately is answered thanks to the film's central character Patrick "Kitten" Braden. "In making the film, I wanted to turn it into a fairy tale, the fairy tale that the central character, Patrick, manages to create out of his own harsh life," says director and writer Neil Jordan. "As Pat McCabe and I worked on refining the script, in the back of my mind all the time was Candide” (Voltaire’s fable of an eternal optimist who maintains that he lives in the “best of all possible worlds” even as ruin and mayhem envelop him). Through this insane insistence on seeing the world as a beautiful place, Patrick never really loses even when he loses everything. Some would see Patrick's life as a tragedy, but that is way off the mark. In fact no matter what befalls him, no matter what may come his way, Patrick continues to triumph and remain fixed on his goals. While much of what happens appears comical, and there are plenty of laughs to be had throughout the film, following the progress of Patrick searching for his mother, leaves one full of admiration for the gender bending young man from Tyreelin, Ireland. "The events of the film are like tragedy, but the central character turns it into a comic reality," says Jordan. "It’s a thing that comes out of the Irish storytelling tradition; when Sean O’Casey first wrote his plays they hadn’t got a word for them, they were neither comic nor tragic but both. I was after that kind of balance between the grotesque and horrific and Patrick’s core of comedy." These are transitions Jordan says he just loved. One of the most outstanding moments in the film comes when, after a bombing in a London pub, Patrick aka "Kitten" becomes the prime suspect in the police investigation. Beaten, deprived, tossed about the interview room "Kitten" is a stereotype of those hapless female victims seen in some of those early silent movies. Neil Jordan notes the transistion here as, "like where the policeman who hammers the living daylights out of him later comes back and rescues him." Jordan also notes that there is a parallel between the times "Breakfast On Pluto" is set in and those we are now experiencing. "I looked back on my memories of the sixties and seventies in Dublin and London and found an eerie resemblance to that time; think of the London bombings that just happened, and it made me a little reluctant to do this film," Jordan explained. "I had the script for three or four years and I didn’t push it, but then I finally decided that the experience that the film represents is really quite instructive for anybody living in these times. With all these nasty ideologies trying to tell you what you should be, in a world where you can go into a bar and the bar may explode, how do you make your way in the world?" On that point is there a political message in the film? "Look, I spent my twenties in Dublin and London. The fact that there was political violence in Ireland was like a blight on everybody’s life. What interests me is how individuals work with what they’ve been given. But," he notes, "even though there are some obvious parallels between "Breakfast on Pluto" and "The Crying Game" (both deal with transvestitism and terrorism), it’s almost incidental. 'Pluto' is really much more of a companion piece to "The Butcher Boy". They both feature childhoods warped by that strange Irish mixture of social pressures and madness. But 'Pluto' is really more about a beautiful soul than about politics or violence." And Jordan hits the nail right on the head because that's an ascertion I personally back. It's also about survival. And hows does that help Patrick? "Patrick wins in the end because he has more grace, more humour, and in the end, more charity than all the grotesques that confront him," says Jordan. Is that all? "And he has much better clothes, Jordan adds." The Verdict "It's hard to believe that this is the same Cillian Murphy we saw in "Red Eye" and "Batman Begins". "Breakfast On Pluto" is an exceptional film on many levels. The soundtrack is superb. Unlike most films, which only use small grabs from a recording, this film provides whole tracks including a duet featuring Gavin Friday and Cillian Murphy. While there is much good that can be said of "Breakfast On Pluto", there's no doubting that it all hangs on Cillian Murphey performance as Patrick "Kitten" Braden. And even though the support cast (which includes Liam Neeson and Stephen Rea) do a truly admirable job in their various roles, it will be Cillian Murphy's tour de force performance as "Kitten" that will remain in the memory of cinemagoers long after you have they have left the cinema. Murphy's 'in character' performance is totally convincing. Watch out for Brian Ferry who has a small but sinister role in the film. Very funny and highly entertaining, Neil Jordan's "Breakfast On Pluto", the screen adaptation of Pat McCabe's novel, deservedly rates 4 STARS. Very recommended." Cast & Crew Bytes "BREAKFAST ON PLUTO" stars .......
Liam Neeson ["K-19: The Widowmaker", "Love Actually", "Kingdom Of Heaven" and "Batman Begins"]; Ruth Negga ["3-Minute 4-Play", "Isolation" and "Colour Me Kubrick"]; Brendan Gleeson ["Cold Mountain", "Troy", "The Village" and "Kingdom of Heaven"]; Stephen Rea ["The End of the Affair", "Bloom", "Evelyn" and "River Queen"]; Gavin Friday ["Disco Pigs" and composer for "Angel Baby", "In America" and "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"]; Steven Waddington ["The Last of the Mohicans", "1492: Conquest of Paradise", "Prince Of Jutland" and "Sleepy Hollow"] and Cillian Murphy ["28 Days", "Girl with a Pearl Earring", "Cold Mountain", "Batman Begins" and "Red Eye"] as Patrick 'Kitten' Braden.
"BREAKFAST ON PLUTO" was .......
directed by Neil Jordan ["The Company of Wolves", "The Crying Game", "The Butcher Boy" and "Not I"]; screenplay by Neil Jordan ["Michael Collins", "The End Of The Affair", "The Good Thief" and "The Actors"]; original story by Pat McCabe ["The Butcher Boy" and "LSD '73!"]; cinematography by Declan Quinn ["28 Days", "Monsoon Wedding", "In America" and "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"]; edited by Tony Lawson ["Straw Dogs", "The Bounty", "Wuthering Heights" and "Laws of Attraction"] produced by Stephen Woolley ["The Crying Game", "Welcome to Woop Woop", "Purely Belter" and "Intermission"] and Neil Jordan ["The Courier", "The Last September", "The Actors" and "Intermission"]. Run Time 125 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Sony Pictures Classics - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved