Breakfast on Pluto
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineKen 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. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Playful, poetic, shocking, saddening, and ultimately gratifyingly and honestly big-hearted. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn 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. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is like a Dickens novel in which the hero moves through the underskirts of society, encountering one colorful character after another. Read full review
80
Film ThreatEric Campos
If you like your boys pretty and your stories incredible, this movie is for you. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Jordan is always best on his native Irish turf, and he's in grand mischievous form in this picaresque fable. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
It is the central performance that holds us. Cillian Murphy glows. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
For Jordan, this is a return to top form. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Cillian Murphy gives a tour de force performance. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter 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. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Thanks to Jordan's bravura storytelling, Breakfast on Pluto is one of very few movies this year truly worth remembering. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter 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. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Known for his visual images, Jordan outdoes himself in "Breakfast,'' a feast for the eyes. Read full review
75
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. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
In a year overcrowded with wonderful performances by lead actors, Mr. Murphy's immensely appealing turn ranks among the strongest. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc 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. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
At over two hours, Breakfast on Pluto is too much of a merely pretty and pretty good thing. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Ambles along nicely, but feels as if it's never going to end. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
However great Murphy is in this film, even greater is Liam Neeson as Father Bernard. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Though he (Jordan) directs with admirable skill, his usual touches don't drive the film--which occasionally threatens to lose its shape. Read full review
60
SlateDavid 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. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Although "Pluto" has a rollicky, endearing air, it's cooler than Jordan's other films. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna Smith
This has charm and glamour but little profundity. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Tedious portrait of a troubled Rolling Stone. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd 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. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Cross-dressing and the Irish Troubles don't mix well in Neil Jordan's cloying, fanciful Breakfast on Pluto. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla 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. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia 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. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
In the end, his (Patrick) disaffection make him a singularly uninvolving character, and his disengagement makes him seem alternately shallow, selfish and perverse. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Some road pictures take you somewhere. Breakfast on Pluto, from its archly poetic title on down, promises a lulu. Yes, well. Promises, promises. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence 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. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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." Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Despite the movie's bouncy ebullience (courtesy of a terrific period soundtrack) and dashes of fantasy, the film quickly becomes an endurance test. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe 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.
10
Village VoiceMichael 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. Read full review
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