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Breakfast on Pluto
Sony Pictures Classics


8.3

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 21 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, language, some violence and drug use

Starring Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Gavin Friday, Laurence Kinlan, Ruth McCabe, and Ruth Negga

Director Neil Jordan weaves a wonderfully surreal and magical tale to bring us this funny, moving and poignant rites of passage account of a young man enduring the trials and tribulations he faces with a smile and unwavering faith in the inherent goodness in us all. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Neil Jordan Pat McCabe (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Neil Jordan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 18, 2006 Theatrical: November 16, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	135 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Ireland / UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

TV Guide Ken Fox

Jordan and McCabe's real triumph here, however, is the tenderness with which they imbues "Kitten," and the astonishing grace with which the extraordinary Murphy pulls it off.

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Playful, poetic, shocking, saddening, and ultimately gratifyingly and honestly big-hearted.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

[Murphy] makes a thrillingly flesh-and-blood creature of Kitten, with her yearning, her droll, self-deprecating wit, her breathless romanticism and her puckish vibrancy. It's easily the most fun bit of screen acting this year, and as rich and nuanced as the lead in any drama.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is like a Dickens novel in which the hero moves through the underskirts of society, encountering one colorful character after another.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

It is the central performance that holds us. Cillian Murphy glows.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

For Jordan, this is a return to top form.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Cillian Murphy gives a tour de force performance.

Newsweek David Ansen

Jordan is always best on his native Irish turf, and he's in grand mischievous form in this picaresque fable.

Film Threat Eric Campos

If you like your boys pretty and your stories incredible, this movie is for you.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In substance and style, the movie is more than a few tears short of Jordan's "The Crying Game." But Murphy is an actor to watch. Even in heels.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Cillian Murphy plays a hyper-feminine transvestite who spends much of the movie traipsing about an increasingly violent landscape in search of his long lost mother. His whirligig encounters, political and sexual, rarely soar.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Thanks to Jordan's bravura storytelling, Breakfast on Pluto is one of very few movies this year truly worth remembering.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Jordan unites his favorite actors -- Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart and Brendan Gleeson -- with the swoony presence of the talented 29-year-old Cillian Murphy.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Known for his visual images, Jordan outdoes himself in "Breakfast,'' a feast for the eyes.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Jordan remains faithful to the looney sensibility of a hero, who is hard to take, but in his refusal to acquiesce to the social humdrum, is like a saint, or at least an artist.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

In a year overcrowded with wonderful performances by lead actors, Mr. Murphy's immensely appealing turn ranks among the strongest.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A charming, winsome slice of Seventies pop kitsch reconceived as a kind of Knight-errant quest for that holiest of all grails, dear old mom.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

At over two hours, Breakfast on Pluto is too much of a merely pretty and pretty good thing.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Ambles along nicely, but feels as if it's never going to end.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

However great Murphy is in this film, even greater is Liam Neeson as Father Bernard.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Although "Pluto" has a rollicky, endearing air, it's cooler than Jordan's other films.

Empire Anna Smith

This has charm and glamour but little profundity.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though he (Jordan) directs with admirable skill, his usual touches don't drive the film--which occasionally threatens to lose its shape.

Slate David Edelstein

A more down-to-earth actor would sentimentalize Breakfast on Pluto and make for an awkward fit with its peculiar mix of tones. Murphy's strangeness--his chill estrangement--makes his campy "Kitten" persona more poignant.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Murphy's breathy, high voice as Kitten feels forced, but not nearly as much as the film's efforts to be both whimsical and weighty.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

In the end, his (Patrick) disaffection make him a singularly uninvolving character, and his disengagement makes him seem alternately shallow, selfish and perverse.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Cross-dressing and the Irish Troubles don't mix well in Neil Jordan's cloying, fanciful Breakfast on Pluto.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Jordan is trying for a surrealist romp, and it's as coy and callow as you'd expect from a movie with a lead character nicknamed Kitten.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Tedious portrait of a troubled Rolling Stone.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Despite numerous surface pleasures, including a beguiling pop soundtrack and presence of rising star Cillian Murphy in the lead role, dramatic shortcomings spell a mixed overall reception.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Breakfast on Pluto, like its cross-dressing heroine, is appealing yet irritating, fun company at times but just as often a bore, occasionally quite touching yet frequently fey and self-indulgent.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Some road pictures take you somewhere. Breakfast on Pluto, from its archly poetic title on down, promises a lulu. Yes, well. Promises, promises.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Jordan lets slip virtually every rudiment of drama. He never deigns to develop his characters, he coats the movie in a wet blanket of whimsy, and he lets pop songs do his work for him more lavishly than Cameron Crowe did in "Elizabethtown."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Despite the movie's bouncy ebullience (courtesy of a terrific period soundtrack) and dashes of fantasy, the film quickly becomes an endurance test.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Breakfast on Pluto, with an impressive cast that includes Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson, deploys its whimsy in many ways, all of them cloying.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

May be Jordan's wildest mis-shot yet, so dense with dying fizzle and limp ideas that I began to wonder if Jordan has an evil twin, or if there are in fact several Neil Jordans, among them at least one literate stylist and one humor-handicapped village idiot.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Drew F. gave it a9:
Tremendous lead performance from Murphy. Too bad it was such a tough year (with so many quality lead actor performances), cause this really was worthy of Oscar consideration. The movie itself is at times funny, touching, heart wrenching, and ultimately uplifting. Loved every moment of it, including the absolute funniest scene of any film that I saw last year (Kitten takes on the troops).

Mart gave it a4:
Are you having a laugh Neil Jordan?This was painful to watch from start to finish, even though I really tried to like it.Being Irish, I thought I'd see something the American reviewers missed.I didn't.Cillian Murphy's character is nothing but annoying and (as the L.A. Times says) "shallow,selfish and perverse."I insisted my girlfriend go watch it with me; she hasn't looked at me the same since.

Richard gave it an8:
A true fairy tale, in every sense. Great acting, great music, 1001 crazy nights & days. Bombs & blarney; slight, but touching. Love the robins, love Cillian &, most of all, love St. Kitten-not a mean bone in her body.

Ben K. gave it a5:
A tedious combination of Candide and Forrest Gump featuring glam singers who run guns for the IRA, fornicating priests, and gay magicians. It's not as interesting as it sounds. Of course the movie is set during the 70's when this sort of thing was normal but it doesn't really have anything to say about it.

Billy S. gave it an8:
"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart" And you thought the world was too cold for another Anne Frank, well, in Breakfast On Pluto, she's back in the guise of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, whose innocent naivety is her strength in an all to "serious, serious, serious" search to find Mitzi Gayner! A great film from one of the most under-rated directors working today. I'm pretty sure "it moved" when I was watching Cillian Murphy, not that theres anything wrong with that!

Deb K. gave it a7:
Seriously weird, but amazingly well done. Engaging enough to make me want to find out wat happens next to this poor creature. Neeson was nice, but not staggeringly excellent; Murphy is incredible -- incredibly gorgeous, and incredibly femme -- but seriously weird.

John K. gave it a10:
You'll Laugh!!!

Breakfast on Pluto Sony Pictures Classics

Breakfast on Pluto
Sony Pictures Classics