Breakfast with Scot.

"Welcome to the gay family film," writes Rachel Abramowitz in the Los Angeles Times, "as mild and sweet as anything out of the Disney empire. [Breakfast with Scot] stars Ed's Tom Cavanagh and Angels in America's Ben Shenkman as the gay couple, who aren't technically married but might as well be, and Noah Bernett as their new child. The movie is certainly topical, given the newfound media prominence of hockey parenting and, of course, the recent legalization of gay marriage in California and the resulting battle with Proposition 8, this year's ballot proposal that would ban same-sex marriage in the state."

"We've seen endless variations of this formula before, but Breakfast with Scot offers less insight into the strain a child's sexuality has on a parent than I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant. "Eric and Sam are practically eunuchs, and a better story might have connected Eric's desire to butchify Scot with his own feelings about his sexual identity, but the film doesn't really go there, just settling on Eric's predictable rejection and ultimate acceptance of Scot's particular gayness."

"The odd man out is Shenkman, whose character never gets a bonding scene of his own, and instead is made to stand dutifully by as his partner corners the kid's love, even during the big let's-be-a-family finalé," writes Chuck Wilson in the Voice. "Ignoring one half of the parental unit is a disconcerting misstep in an otherwise sharp little movie."

"For its courage to address a ticklish subject with warmhearted humor, Breakfast with Scot, adapted from a novel by Michael Downing, deserves a light round of applause," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. Still, it's "really an extended sitcom in the Will and Grace mode. Eric and Sam, a sports lawyer, might as well be straight roommates for all the affection they display, even when alone. The impulsive little peck that Eric dares to plant on Sam's lips at a party late in the movie comes across more as an expression of terror than as a sign of his imminent liberation from internalized homophobia."

The film's "strangely affecting storyline is given added weight by casting the straight Cavanagh as Eric," argues Mark Peikert in the New York Press. "[W]hile the usual tale of love conquering prejudice unfolds, what separates Breakfast with Scot from the usual gay indie film pack is Eric's internalized homophobia."

Posted by dwhudson at October 10, 2008 6:03 AM