When "Breakfast On Pluto" was released in the UK in January, I kept a positive review of it from The Sunday Times, just waiting for it to appear at one of our two local mulitiplexes...you know, 24 screens between them, that show the same films! It never appeared so when and I saw it on DVD at HMV, just HAD to buy it, cos it seemed like the kind of movie i would enjoy....it IS.

This film follows Patrick "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy) from a small town in southern Ireland on the quest to find his mother who abandoned him at birth.

His adopted mother is not best pleased to find Patrick dressed in her clothes and certainly his school finds it difficult to come to terms with his transgenderism.....but Patrick is obviously determined in his quest to become "Kitten" and find his birth mother.

Now, I realise this sounds bleak, but its extremely funny and sensitive in addressing Kitten's issues. She leaves home, joins a rock band (somewhat briefly), lives alone in a caravan, nearly gets killed by the IRA (well she did throw their guns away, while spring cleaning the caravan!) and then sets off to London where she's been told her mother is living.

In London she works as a Womble in a theme park which doesn't last too long and drifts into prostitution, nearly gets murdered by a punter (played by Bryan Ferry) and on a night out clubbing gets blown up in a club that's attacked by the IRA.

Discovered as a TV and Irish, she is arrested on suspicion of being the bomber. I found the violence at this part particularly harrowing, by this part of the movie, you are definitely rooting for Kitten. The good cop/bad cop works well but Ian Hart (Backbeat) is extremely good as the bad cop. Eventually released she again drifts back onto the street.

The bad cop persuades her to get off the street and work in a peep show in Soho (so the bad cop, ain't so bad, after all). While there her father visits and tells her where her mother lives. She visits her mother, who is now married with 2 children, but doesn't reveal who she is.

The sub-plot then kicks in and Kitten returns to Ireland to be near her best friend who's now pregnant and who's boyfriend has been murdered. They're taken in by the local priest (Liam Neeson) but the locals are not best pleased with the priest taking in a TV and unmarried pregnant girl and complaints are made to the Bishop.

On Christmas Eve the vicarage is firebombed and the priest rescues both of his guests although things start to improve somewhat after this incident. Reading this, I realised how depressing it sounds, but its not. It's a really good upbeat film set in the early 70's with some great music and fantastic acting. It will have you digging out your 45s again and as a "weepie" would, says its only a 2-hankie film.

Breakfast on Pluto is now available on DVD from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk...