Since bursting onto the scene four years ago as the postapocalyptic zombie killer in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later..., the chameleon-like yet still distinctive Cillian Murphy has created an eclectic resume that mixes Hollywood and European roles. In 2005 he played a kidnapper in Wes Craven's popcorn thriller Red Eye, the Scarecrow in Warner's summer tentpole Batman Begins, and the cross-dressing eccentric "Kitten" Branden [sic] in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto. Now he's receiving praise for his lead performance in Ken Loach's 2006 Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley. (IFC First Take opens the film in March.)
In the film, which is set in the 1920s, Murphy plays Damien, a distinguished Irishman who prepares to leave his homeland for London to attend medical school. But with the British continuing to brutalize his fellow Irishmen, Damien joins up instead with his older brother as part of a volunteer army made up to fight the British. As the film goes on, Murphy transforms in front of our eyes from a rational thinking idealist into a vicious, pride-driven rebel who'll go as far as executing a boyhood friend to continue the cause for an independent Ireland.
Next up for Murphy is another collaboration with Boyle and the lead in a noir comedy by Broken Lizard's Paul Soter.