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'Breakfast on Pluto': The trip is a bit too long

In the same way that Jaye Davidson dominated Neil Jordan's The Crying Game in 1992, Cillian Murphy is the most interesting thing about Breakfast on Pluto, another film by the director about a transvestite, set against a backdrop of the Irish conflicts.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Breakfast on Pluto' C+ The verdict: Murphy is compelling as an orphaned Irish transvestite, but the movie fails to hold interest. Director: Neil Jordan Starring: Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Laurence Kinlan Run time: 129 minutes Release date: Nov. 16, 2005 Rating: R for sexuality, language, some violence and drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Breakfast on Pluto'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Murphy has already been prominently featured this year in Batman Begins and Red Eye, but neither quite prepares us for his performance as Patrick "Kitten" Braden. Abandoned by his mother as a baby, he searches obsessively for her for the rest of his life, usually in fashionable dresses and full makeup.

Murphy makes a remarkably convincing woman, one who expects the best from people and — what a surprise — then has to cope with the resulting disappointment, sort of an Irish Candide.

After a perplexed priest (Liam Neeson) finds baby Patrick on his doorstep, he foists him off on the local pub owner. Patrick then grows up and begins his search for his real mum, knowing only that she looked like film star Mitzi Gaynor and was last seen on the streets of London.

Following a foray into the club scene, Patrick gets picked up by rock band whose leader runs guns for the IRA. Patrick dumps the rocker's arsenal into the sea and is nearly killed for it, but manages to escape and head to London. There he becomes a magician's assistant and later a hustler, careers he finds to have eerie similarities.

Throughout the film's overlong two-plus hours, ticked off in some three dozen chapters, Murphy fascinates, but Patrick's odyssey proves wearying.

And did I mention that the film begins and ends with chirpy birds whose conversation is translated into English subtitles?