Breakfast on Pluto (Out on DVD) follows the life of a transvestite named Patrick (aka Kitten) during the 70’s and 60’s in Ireland/London. The film is a little over two hours and overthetop Cillian Murphy stars as Kitten. We open with a scene in which the adult Kitten is getting catcalled by construction workers and wheeling around a baby.
Cut to a title screen that indicates a chapter and a title; something like: 1 In which I was abandoned. The reason for the title screens is that the film was based off of a book by Patrick McCabe, an author that Neil Jordan (INTERVEIW WITH THE VAMPIRE) seems to like working with (THE BUTCHER BOY). No mind. Title screens like that are lazy and insulting. If I want to know what’s going on in the film I will watch it, not lazily look at the screen and then think “Gee that’s what’s going to happen”. The only thing worse than title screens are ones that don’t even really accomplish their goal. You would think that they would bring some semblance to the film, but the vignettes are rudely hinged together. It was all over the place with bad transitions and poor explanations for certain events that take place in the film. There were times when I was confused and a title screen certainly didn’t help with my confusion. There are some fantasy sequences that are highly entertaining but in order to get to them you have to watch the rest of the movie.
People may also tell you (and if you read any synopsis) that this film is about a crossdressing cabaret singer. Not really. It’s about a transvestite who lives in a different reality and therefore can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble. There’s not much singing or acting (on stage anyway). Cillian Murphy (BATMAN BEGINS, RED EYE) is doing his impression of a crossdresser and it’s pretty good. I love Cillian Murphy because he’s such a bad actor. Every role I’ve seen him in has been exaggerated almost to the point of vaudvillian. It works in this film though because Kitten herself is such a bad actress. Liam Neeson (also in BATMAN with Cillian) plays a priest who watches after Kitten. He does his best at feeling guilty and awkward. I don’t really like Neeson so I have a bit of a bias. He does do a pretty excellent job in this film though.
Yet how many times can I watch the same movie (albeit slightly altered)? If you’ve seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch or Velvet Goldmine and you want to revisit them in a film that’s not even as good, or if you’re really dying to watch a film about war torn Ireland from a crossdresser’s perspective then be my guest. Even the performances couldn’t save this disjointed, somewhat sloppy, and looooong film, which I wouldn’t have watched based on content alone unless it was with someone that did (curses Alana!).
