Breakfast on Pluto

Breakfast

on Pluto

Image courtesy of Pathé Pictures International

Either director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins, Interview With the Vampire) has an overwhelming sense of Catholic guilt compounding some really deep-seated mother issues, or he just really likes stories about mother-less transvestites. The Irish director tackles his favorite two themes in his latest movie, Breakfast on Pluto, the story of Patrick “Kitten” Braden's quest to find the Phantom Lady who haunts his daydreams.

Breakfast on Pluto is loosely based on the Patrick McCabe novel of the same name – the key word being “loosely.” For the most part, Pluto’s plot is basically the same: in young Patrick’s search to find his mother, he starts cross-dressing, runs away from home, and spends the next few years searching for his Phantom Lady throughout London – the city that “swallowed his mother up.” Where the main difference lies is how “McCabe’s “Pussy” uses her vivid imagination to escape from the violent IRA life of Ireland in the 70’s; whereas, in “Kitten’s” fantasies, Jordan only offers us a look inside the convoluted mind of an identity crisis gone horribly awry.

If nothing else, Patrick’s journey is an amusing one. Along the way he is kicked out of a dance club for wearing a dress, changes his name to “Saint Kitten,” dresses like Pocahontas onstage for her “Running Bear”, pisses-off some IRA thugs, works in a kiddie theme park, uses Chanel Number 5 to escape from a “John,” joins a magic act, is arrested for bombing a disco, and dances at a peep-show – all before finding his elusive “Phantom Lady.”

Kitten’s journey takes an unsuspected turn when the all-consuming guilt of Catholicism leads Father Bernard (Liam Neeson) – her real father – to Kitten’s peep-show where he confesses his own sins before giving Kitten her mother’s London address. On one hand, Father Bernard’s lack of pedophilia is somewhat of a relief; but, by turning the peep-show booth into a perverse confessional, Father Bernard’s story is as flimsy as Kitten’s version of reality. Of course, the eventual meeting between mother and son eventually occurs; and, it is predictably bittersweet.

Jordan’s claim that Kitten’s story resembles Candide, Voltaire’s fable about the eternal optimist, is somewhat farfetched. The very reason Patrick calls his mother the “Phantom Lady” (to keep himself from crying) makes it hard for me to believe that someone who spends their entire life desperately clinging to the fantasy world they have created as being optimistic – delusional, maybe – but, not optimistic.

Jordan brings the tragedy of Kitten’s delusion to light during the time she spends with Bertie the magician. At one point, you are laughing at her antics; and, suddenly, without warning, you find yourself welling up with tears when Bertie “hypnotizes” Kitten making her run around frantically yelling for her mother.

Obviously, Kitten’s scars run deep. Yet, an even sadder moment surfaces when she does find her Phantom Lady. Under the fake premise of taking surveys for the phone company, Kitten goes to her mother’s address in London, dressed as her spitting image, of course.

Image courtesy of Pathé Pictures International

But, before she can muster up the courage to knock on the door, she runs into a boy playing on the street and discovers the boy is his half-brother – also named Patrick. After sharing Kitten’s realization that she had been replaced, I didn’t know whether I wanted to punch the Phantom Lady in the face or just bury my face in my hands and cry.

Overall, the film is emotionally engaging and even amusing at times; but, at a run time of over two hours, it is a tad too long. The over excessive length of Kitten’s gender-bending fairy tale almost drains you to the point of having your own emotional break-down; and, you just can’t seem to snap back to reality until everything is said and done and the credits are rolling.

Breakfast on Pluto has been called the “Irish Forrest Gump;” but, I just don’t see it. Granted, both Forrest and Kitten do take us back to another era; but, Kitten’s journey doesn’t have the same overtly postmodern historical references that Forrest throws at us. Pluto’s 70’s pop music of Don Partridge, Harry Nilsson, Gavin Friday, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Vale, and Van Morrison perfectly compliment the illusive reality of Kitten’s identity crisis without going too overboard – well, not for Kitten at least . Cillian Murphy’s performance as Kitten is nothing short of brilliant; and, the supporting cast of Liam Neeson as Father Bernard, Stephen Rea as Bernie, Laurence Kinlan as Irwin, and Ruth Negga as Charlie are equally superb.

On a more personal note, I did have the chance to sit in on a roundtable interview with Neil Jordan last month; however, due to an incident involving two pompous valets outside Mr. Jordan’s hotel, I slunk into the interview 10 minutes late feeling like a complete ass.

Image courtesy of Pathé Pictures International

So, because I can only account for the second portion of the interview where no one was interested in talking about the movie, there’s no point in posting it. Instead, I think I’ll leave the details of that story to Kitten’s vivid imagination…it’s more fun that way.