The movie Cillian Murphy called “the finest Irish film of the last few decades”
It’s been more than a quarter of a century since he first began his career on local shores, but Cillian Murphy is now the toast of Hollywood having recently experienced the crowning achievement of his career to date.
For anchoring Christopher Nolan’s ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’-winning biographical drama Oppenheimer, Murphy became the first Irish performer to ever win ‘Best Actor’ at the Academy Awards, a reward that was richly deserved following a staggering turn as the father of the atomic bomb.
He may be a popular, in-demand, and awards-laden star, but Murphy continues to live in Ireland having relocated his family back to more familiar turf from London a decade ago. Unsurprisingly for a Cork native, then, it was the burgeoning Irish independent scene that got his foot in the feature-length door.
Not for too long, though, with his breakthrough role in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later only his sixth movie appearance, which instantly opened the door to bigger and better things. Of course, he’s made regular returns in the years since in the likes of Intermission, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Perrier, and The Delinquent Season to name but a small few, and he’s even got a direct connection to the Irish film he thinks is one of the best of the modern era.
Adapted from Patrick McCabe’s 1992 novel of the same name, Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy was released five years later, with Stephen Rea starring as the alcoholic father of a television-obsessed youngster who also has a suicidal mother to contend with. His violent fantasies end up having him placed in a reform school, where yet more tragedy awaits 12-year-old Francie.
It’s not an easy watch despite lashings of jet-black humour, but Murphy remains equally enthralled by the story on both page and screen. As he told Rotten Tomatoes, The Butcher Boy is “arguably the finest Irish book and Irish film of the last few decades.” Alluding to how the narrative is “twisted and funny and dark,” the star makes no bones about calling both McCabe and Jordan “masters”.
Fast forward eight years after The Butcher Boy‘s 1997 premiere, and what was Murphy doing? He was headlining Breakfast on Pluto as Patricia Braden in a performance that would earn him a Golden Globe nomination in the ‘Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy’ category.
Getting the chance to work with the masterminds behind a production he deems comparable to anything Ireland has put out in decades, Breakfast on Pluto was, of course, not only directed by Jordan but based on a novel by McCabe, with the two creative heavyweights once again combining forces to pen the screenplay. It’s the sort of coincidence that nobody could make up, with Murphy benefitting immeasurably from the fortuitous circumstances.
