If I wasn’t a transvestite terrorist, would you marry me?

Year Released: 2005

Director: Neil Jordan

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Ruth Negga, Gavin Friday, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson

I have a lot of time for Cillian Murphy and whilst he may not be the big name that some of the others listed in this film are, he has carried many films before. There have been times where I have gone to watch a movie simply because he was in it, and there aren’t many actors I can say that about. He is an excellent performer and even if he stars in a bad film, he is never poor himself. That leads me neatly onto “Breakfast on Pluto”

Growing up as a transgender kid, I became obsessed with any film that focused on that theme as I neared what I hoped would be my inevitable transition (now completed), and I’ve reviewed a lot of them on this site before. I’ve decided to add this to the list as I watched it for the time in years as I flew from Lisbon to Dublin (I am literally writing this in Dublin airport, starting at 2:40am whilst I wait for a connecting flight).

I didn’t particularly enjoy the film on the first several viewings, but I hoped that watching it for the first time since long before I began my transition, it would have a different meaning for me. There have been plenty of films that I used to hate but now love, so I hope that with some movies the exact opposite will happen.

Plot

Patrick (Murphy) was abandoned as a baby at the house of Father Liam (Neeson), subsequently being adopted into a family that doesn’t accept his feminine nature growing up, nor do the priests at the Catholic school he attends. After yet another argument, Patrick decides to leave home and adopt the persona of Kitten, becoming openly transgender to the world.

Kitten soon meets Billy Hatchet (Friday), who is a lead singer of a rock band, but also a terrorist that uses her to hide some weapons, and this relationship starts a downward spiral for Kitten.

She refuses to change who she is and won’t give up her search for her mother, which could spell trouble for friends and family.

 

Has my opinion of the movie changed after all of these years?

I’m going to start by saying that Cillian Murphy is exceptional in this role. It’s certainly not the only character who wears female clothing during his career (the other being a movie called “Peacock”) and he is exceptional in the role. He steals every scene that he is in (which is near enough every single scene) and he looks stunning in the full-on Kitten mode.

Murphy’s chameleonic range lends itself brilliantly to a character that is far removed from anything he is commonly known for, and without him, this film wouldn’t have stood a chance of working.

That being said, it doesn’t work.

“Breakfast on Pluto” is one of those movies where there doesn’t really seem to be a point of message. It’s just sort of there. Despite Murphy’s excellent performance, it is hard to get behind Kitten as a character. She is tediously dull and because she features in pretty much every scene, it gets old very quickly.

Despite her hardships, you never feel like Kitten is more than a scene away from being in a good situation again. She never seems to find it hard to be in a relationship and the film becomes a bit unbelievable because of that.

Yes, the character suffers setbacks, but the fact her personality never really shifts and is impacted by what has happened. In that sense, she is a bit one dimensional. The side characters aren’t really developed, and ultimately, a film that is more than two hours long needs to have more than one character that is focused on.

Summary

Cillian Murphy steals the show as a character that is actually quite hard to get behind. Kitten isn’t an investable character and you’re never allowed to really breath as I don’t think that there is a single scene without her in it.

There are far better transgender centric films out there, and whilst I am not saying that this is a bad film, far from it. The characterisation is the problem.

If you are a young transgendered individual then maybe you will get something out of this movie, but otherwise, there isn’t really anything outside of Murphy performance that I can really praise.