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Cillian
Murphy is convincing as the star of Neil Jordan’s 1970s fairy tale about an
Irish congenital cross-dresser, but his coy, fey character may be annoying.
With
Felicity Huffman in Transamerica and this film, this year’s Oscars may
offer the odd possibility of both the male and female acting winners playing
men trying to become women. Neil Jordan’s (The Crying Game, Interview with a
Vampire) version of a Patrick McCabe novel features pretty Cillian Murphy,
he of Red Eye, Batman Begins, and 28 Days Later. Murphy
plays a character variously called Patrick, Kitten, and Patricia. Left as a
foundling on the doorstep of the local priest (Liam Neeson), and raised by a
shrew in an Irish hamlet, Kitten wanders as Red Riding Hood through the forest
of 1970s British Isles cultural phenomena like glam rock, IRA bombings, and the
Wombles. And too there are wolves come to prey on an innocent who wants only
the love he never had. Talking birds (subtitled!) and cute little chapter headings
are there to remind us that it’s only a fairy tale, though. I should probably
think of some other reason to justify my low rating, but really, it’s that, for
at least the first half of the movie, I was irritated, not charmed, by the fey,
coy Patrick/Patricia, even if Murphy’s portrayal is very convincing.
IMDb link
posted 9/17/13
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