Bent family

>> A queer kid invades an uptight gay couple’s
lives in the treacly Breakfast With Scot

HOCKEY AND HOMOPHOBIA: Breakfast With Scot

by MATTHEW HAYS

Toronto filmmaker Laurie Lynd was handed the kind of publicity that filmmakers can only dream of. His latest film, Breakfast With Scot, was to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. TIFF has often featured movies with queer themes, but this one was a bit different, having received the seal of approval from the NHL (a first).

Being that team sports are one of the last bastions of potent homophobia, this is no small feat. And the film does work to upend stereotypes about gays. The plot is simple: a straight-acting gay couple learn that a family member has died. Dead single mom leaves son in their hands. Cute, plucky son is decidedly queer—sings show tunes and dons make-up—which makes straight-acting gay couple (one of whom is a hockey player) very queasy. Through this delightful child, they learn about overcoming their own internalized homophobia. (Word of this plot is what set off a flurry of articles in various places, with the NHL standing by their decision to endorse the film in an article in The New York Times.)

In the context of what Lynd is setting out to do with Breakfast With Scot, the film is a passable entry. It feels like a bit of a retread of Baby Boom. In that film, soulless yuppie Diane Keaton learned about the joys of motherhood after inheriting a baby (again, through some dead relative). Not only is procreation important for the survival of the human race, it can be a learning experience too.

It’s sweet to an extent, but films like Breakfast With Scot walk a precarious tight rope. There’s a fine line, after all, between heart-warming and stomach-churning, and this feature comes mighty close to crossing it on a few too many occasions. Films like these also demand pretty tortuous comic touches as well; a high point here occurs when someone falls down after slipping in vomit.

Breakfast With Scot has the very best of intentions. And it’s not an innately evil film, per se. But it will prove a tad too treacly for bitter, cynical filmgoers like myself.

Breakfast with Scot
opens this Friday, Dec. 7

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