Many of you know Thomas Cavanagh from Scrubs, or as the title character in Ed. The astute of you may also know him as the drama teacher in the Showtime® movie Bang Bang You're Dead! In Breakfast with Scot, Cavanagh plays Eric, a pro hockey player turned sportscaster, living a closeted but peaceful DINK life with his lawyer boyfriend Sam (Ben Shenkman, Angels in America and Law & Order). Eric's brother's girlfriend turns up dead, leaving her 11-year-old son Scot (from a previous relationship) in the care of the brother. Trouble is, the brother is off to South America, besides being less than suited for single parenthood, so Scot lands with Eric and Sam. Scot, though, isn't exactly your typical pre-teen boy: he has a pink musical hairbrush and decides that his pee-wee hockey uniform needs "a little more sparkle." Scot unwittingly challenges Eric and Sam's closet, but a bond forms between them, building to a turning point when Eric's brother arrives to take Scot back with him to South America.
As a card-carrying sissy myself, growing up in "Canada's 11th Province" (Texas), I would guess that I know even less about hockey than the average American, and that's saying a lot. Happily, one needn't know any more than "ice skates," "goalie," and "hockey puck" to follow the story line. The characters are fully 3-dimensional, and the connection between the adults and their unexpected bundle of joy develops believably. Noah Bernett as Scot is astonishing, playing the sissy boy with panache and conviction. Highly recommended.
Update: I saw Breakfast with Scot on the very small screen — on the back of an airplane seat. Kudos to Air Canada for putting something interesting in the video menu, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it larger than life at the Castro Theatre in the Frameline32 festival, 2008-06-29.
Breakfast with Scot, dir. Laurie Lynd, 2007 Canada, 90 min.
Technorati tags: Breakfast with Scot, Frameline32, LGBT Film
