Long Before “Oppenheimer”:

Cillian Murphy has carried several great films.

Have you watched the “Oppenheimer” movie yet? Will you? I’m normally not a fan of huge movie theaters and gladly watch any film on my big enough TV, but it’s too long of a wait  before it is available streaming. So, when my daughter comes for a short visit in August we’ll go and watch it together. 

Elaine Cassidy, Cillian Murphy. Images from fanpop.com

I found out about the film through a New York Times article from May 24. It states that  “The ‘Oppenheimer’ star is carrying a major movie for the first time”, and goes on about his good looks and intense eyes, all of which is so obvious that it hardly needs mentioning. And it does NOT define Cilian Murphy who first and foremost is an exceptionally talented actor. Who values his privacy when he’s not shooting a film but living  with his wife and two sons. Who “keeps the fame wolves at the door” and doesn’t cash in on being famous. He sounds like a decent human being, whose values haven’t changed much because he’s a superstar. Well-deserved superstar, I should add. I’ll post two reviews here which I wrote for a blog I had over ten years ago.

First, there is  Disco Pigs (2001), a deeply touching tale reminiscent of classic Greek tragedies. Two babies, a boy and a girl, born almost the same minute in the same hospital, grow up next door to each other, separated only by a thin wall with a possibly imaginary hole through which they can hold hands when falling asleep at night. Both have parents/families with their own problems, and the two children form a bond so deep, so exclusive, that it sets them apart from the outside world, from other people, from what commonly is considered reality. They’re always together, make up a language of their own, call each other Pig and Runt (their real names are Darren and Sinead), and develop an almost psychic awareness for the other.

As strongly as they’re tuned into each other’s feelings, as little sensitivity do they demonstrate when it comes to other people. They are each other’s world, complete, without anything missing. Other people are like objects, easily manipulated, and irrelevant at best.

When they become teenagers, Pig in particular develops a predilection for violence which Runt goes along with and finds amusing. It’s almost as if every single shred of positive feeling he’s capable of is reserved for her; his love and devotion and affection for her is so absolute that there’s nothing left for others.

Shortly before their 17th birthday the innocence of their relationship shifts. Pig experiences a new kind of attraction to Runt that she’s not quite ready for. A small crack becomes noticeable in their bond allowing a twisted darkness to enter, a slight tremor at first which inexorably grows into a full-blown earthquake, relentlessly pushing them towards a tragic outcome. And yet, they’re still one in the end.

Words can’t really bring this film to life. If this is an unforgettable masterpiece, it is so first and foremost because of the stellar performances by the two lead actors, Cillian Murphy (Pig/Darren) and Elaine Cassidy (Runt/Sinead). Pig with his  vulnerability and loneliness, his destructive violence, his almost desperate devotion to Runt and his boundless, painfully excessive, love for her becomes a multi-faceted and many-dimensional character because of Cillian Murphy’s nuanced and powerful performance. I’d count him among one of the best, easily outshining most of the current Hollywood celebrities. Elaine Cassidy beautifully complements him with her quiet radiance, giving a subtle strength and a budding independence to her character which helps build the tension and trajectory of the storyline. Add to this an exceptional director — Kirsten Sheridan’s feature debut –, stunning cinematography, and a fantastic soundtrack, and one gets a truly memorable, albeit haunting, experience.  

Cillian Murphy started his career with “Disco Pigs”, which is a play written by the Irish playwright Enda Walsh and premiered in 1996 at the Triskel Art Centre in Cork.  The play was so successful that it toured throughout Europe, Canada and Australia for two years. In 2001 Murphy took up the role again for the film adaptation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it streaming anywhere, which may change because of “Oppenheimer”. 

The other not-Hollywood-blockbuster film I want to recommend is “Breakfast On Pluto”, from 2005. Imagine an infant born to an unwed mother in a small, provincial town in Ireland, in the early 1950s. Imagine the tiny baby being left at the doorsteps of the Parish priest who finds a dutiful, but hardly loving foster family to raise the child. Imagine this child, a boy, around the age of eight or nine discovering his predilection for girls’ clothes and make-up — and it wouldn’t surprise you to find a deeply troubled, depressed, distrustful, and confused boy. Not so our foundling Patrick Braden, who prefers to be called Kitten. He, or rather she — that’s how Kitten feels and thinks about herself — accepts that she is different, doesn’t try to fit in with the ordinary crowd, and stays true to herself even when this results in more difficult, rather than easier, circumstances. 

Cillian Murphy as Kitten. Image from fanpop.com

Kitten stubbornly refuses to get bogged down by the seriousness of the “real world”. However, she’s not a mindless party-girl with a head full of fluff, not at all. She’s more like a wise Chinese sage, smiling detachedly at the follies everywhere around her, while at the same time fearlessly jumping right into the thick of it. Or she is like a saint; early on, she warns us: “Not many people can take the tale of Patrick Braden, aka St. Kitten, who strutted the catwalks, face lit by a halo of flashbulbs as ‘oh!’ she shrieks, ‘I told you, from my best side darlings.’ ”

If you can take his/her tale, you’ll follow Kitten’s many adventures, both dangerous and funny, as she travels to London in search of her mother. I’ll mention just one: she gets picked up by a distinguished-looking gentleman in a Mercedes who turns out to be a psychopathic murderer trying to strangle her (Brian Ferry in a cameo role). But she gets away. She always does.

If I had anything to do with Oscars, Cillian Murphy most certainly would have won one for his portrayal of Patrick/Kitten Brady. He is simply terrific, looking very feminine and glamorous while maintaining an awkward innocence that makes Kitten so unique. Murphy is quickly turning into one of my most highly regarded contemporary actors. We just saw him in Perrier’s Bounty, another excellent Irish movie with a superb cast. And for the record: “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is another deeply moving film that won the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. 

A quick tip: unless you’re quite familiar with the Irish dialect, you might want to have the subtitles running. English isn’t my native language, and without the subtitles, I’d be seriously lost. If you have Prime Video, you can rent “Breakfast On Pluto” for $3.59. Highly recommended!