Imdb Ranking 7.2
In 1970s a baby is left on Father Liam's (Liam Neeson) doorstep. As a young boy Patrick 'Kitten' Braden (Cillian Murphy) starts wearing his foster mother's clothes and tries on makeup. His foster mother makes him say "U am a boy and not a girl" but he laughs while he says it. She says: "My heart broke from the cursed day I ever took you in" and then he doesn't smile.
His foster mother tries to get him to play football. Patrick's friend's father, Mr. Feely, tells Patrick that he saw his real mother once, in London. Her name was Eily Bergin, and she was lovely. She had been the most beautiful girl in the town. Patrick asks about his father but Mr. Feely said that he wouldn't know about that. It seems she was Father Liam's housekeeper, and it appears that he was the father. The mom looked like Mitzi Gaynor.
Now a young man, Patrick (Cillian Murphy) steams open an envelope and sees a check to his foster mother from Father Liam for forty one pounds. He goes to confession to Father Liam and says: "You see, once upon a time there was a young girl named Eily Bergin who looked not unlike the well-known film star Mitzi Gaynor who sang 'I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta my Hair'. And she went to London, the biggest city in the world which swallowed her up. But before she vanished I think she worked as a priest's housekeeper, Father." Father Liam gets up and walks out of the confessional.
When Patrick had a writing assignment in school he wrote about how Father Liam may have went about seducing his mother. The teacher was not happy at all and sends him to the Dean's office. Patrick started taking home economics classes and started to sew. Patrick and some friends go to a night club and don't get in but go for a ride with the Border Knights motorcycle club.
Back at school, Patrick is a terror and is driving the priests crazy. Patrick decides to leave home. He gets a ride with a band, Billy Hatchett and the Mohawks. Patrick is soon an intimate friend of Billy's. Soon he is dressing like an Indian princess and singing on stage.
The band heads off for Northern Ireland. The boys in the band just don't think Patrick's singing is helping the band so Billy lets him go. Billy lets Patrick use a mobile house on a lake his mother used to live in. As it turns out the IRA uses the house as a place to stash their weapons. Patrick's friend from\childhood, Lawrence, gets killed by the British troops. Patrick takes all the IRA weapons and throws them in the lake. Billy is scared to death and takes off.
When the IRA comes back Patrick tells them that Billy buried the guns outside. The IRA men almost shoot him but then decide he is not worth it. The IRA men, with Patrick's friend as a driver, then make a hit on an English bomber maker.
Patrick then decides to head to London to look for his mother. Patrick finds the addresses of two E Bergins. At the first address the house was knocked down years ago. He has no luck at the second address either. Patrick then meets John Joe Kenny (Brendan Gleeson) and starts working as a costumed character with him at an amusement park. John Joe is something of a mad man.
Patrick then gets picked up by a guy, who she thinks is a John, but is really a psycho. Patrick saves himself by spraying the guy in the eyes with perfume. Then he meets Bertie (Stephen Rea) at a diner. He tells him about his search for the Phantom Lady, his mother. Bertie is a magician, and at his performance that night he hypnotizes Patricia (that is what she is now calling herself) and has her running all over. Patricia is soon a part of the act.
One of Paddy's old friends, Charlie (a girl), walks in on the act and pulls her out, thinking they are making fun of her. He's back with his old friends, but one of them, Irwin (Charlie's boyfriend) is still hanging out with IRA guys. Charlie is pregnant and came to England to get rid of the baby, but changes her mind.
Paddy has not made a full transition to being a female, and is being hit on by guys at a bar. She is dancing with someone and then a bomb explodes in the bar. Paddy is hurt, but not seriously injured. She is then beat up by interrogating British police who think the cross dressing Irish man was involved in the bombing that killed eleven people. Paddy gives a crazy confession about her involvement. After seven days of internment the police finally believe her and she is let go.
Paddy then goes with an older man who offers to pay her. Soon she is out on the streets doing tricks. She then thinks she sees her mother getting on a train. One of the policemen from the interrogation picks him up on the street and tells him he needs to get a real job. He brings Paddy to a safer and legal house, where he dances in a room for spectators.
Father Liam ends up in the booth talking to Paddy. He tries to explain what happened. He loved the boy and the boy's mother he says, as he tells the story. Father Liam came to tell Paddy where his mom lived, and then he left.
Patricia heads over to his mother's, dresses to the nines in a polka dot dress. When she sees her mom she faints. She pretended to take a survey for the phone company and then she left walked out by her mom's son Patrick.
Charlie got picked up for drugs and Irwin informed on the IRA. The IRA men shoot him in the head. Patty heads back to live with Father Liam and Charlie. A fire bomb is thrown in to the house and Father Liam saves Patty and Charlie. Patty and Charlie head back to England to live near Patty's mom. Charlie gives birth and Patty takes him for a walk and runs in to Patrick, his mother's son.
Another really good movie by Neil Jordan who also did The Butcher Boy, The Crying Game, Michael Collins, and Ondine. Great acting by Cillian Murphy, great writing and a very sympathetic view of a trans-gendered life. To me it was more dramatic than comedic, but it worked as both.
Irish Film and Television Awards,/u>
Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Feature Film - Cillian Murphy
Best Director - Neil Jordan
Best Hair & Make-Up for Film - Lorraine Glynn, Lynn Johnson
Best Script for Film - Neil Jordan, Pat McCabe
