Unlike my sister review column, The Ass Bin, Queer Movie Queue isn’t meant to highlight horrible movies, just gay ones. The fact that so many gay films happen to be God-awful is a topic for another time, but today I’m going talk about a movie I happen to enjoy quite a bit, Breakfast with Scot.
In the movie, hockey pro turned sportscaster Eric (Tom Cavanagh) and his partner Sam (Ben Shenkman) get temporary custody of Scot (Noah Bernett) while they wait for his stepfather (and Sam’s brother) to take him off their hands. The film is really your typical couple-gets-saddled-with-a-kid story: feelings are discovered, the teacher becomes the student, and, in the end, everybody learns a lesson about the true meaning of LURV! The twist is that the aforementioned couple is gay and this gets amped up a notch when we find out that the aforementioned child is also gay. It may be strange to peg a prepubescent kid as gay, but the one in this movie is as gay as the springtime. Gay with a capital G-A-Y. He ain’t got no alibi, he’s fuh-laming.
Scot’s openness about his love of all things pink and girly sets him at odds with the closeted Eric. In his prime, Eric was a fighter and all-around tough guy on the Toronto Maple Leaves. When he hears that he’ll have to be taking care of a young boy, all he can imagine is some ruffian drinking all his booze and impregnating the neighborhood girls. He’s equally disturbed, however, when Scot flounces into his home humming Christmas carols and wearing pink gardenia bodysplash. Their initial interaction is brief (enough time to learn that Scot has no idea who gasp Wayne Gretzky is), but the scent of gardenias lingers on Eric. Similarly, pick accoutrements start popping up all over the couple’s drab apartment. Teh gay has finally caught up with Eric.
And only one of them will survive.
Based on the type of movie this is, you know how everything’s going to end. Nobody’s gonna learn that they should not be true to themselves. Still, I found Breakfast with Scot to be rather charming, and this may be a personal thing, but I think it’s hilarious just how gay Scot is. “Okay, sweetdee,” you may say, “how gay could this kid possibly be?” Gay enough that words don’t do it justice, and thus I present you with a brief photo montage.
Gay. Gay. GAY!
Is that gay enough for you?
One thing that bugged me about the movie is the lack of intimacy between Sam and Eric. Most of this is due to Eric’s No Homo philosophy, but even when they’re alone or sharing a bed, it was hard to imagine them ever doing it. I know this is a family film, but even Scot’s n’er-do-well stepdad is shown getting some action. Sam and Eric share a chaste kiss…and that’s pretty much it for the whole movie. The film also falls a bit flat in the finale. Too many things start happening at once, an we start getting glimpses of the characters that we’ve never seen before.
But for being cute and incredibly gay, I give Breakfast with Scot four pink gardenias out of five.
Got your own opinion? Talk about the movie in the forum.
Tags: ben shenkman, Breakfast with Scot, even I know who gretzky is, film, I had to look up the definition of "bodysplash" though, queer movie queue, tom cavanagh
