Eric McNally (Thomas Cavanagh) is a gay retired hockey player turned TV sportscaster who lives with his partner Sam (Ben Shenkman), a sports lawyer. When Sam unexpectedly becomes the temporary legal guardian of his brother's stepson Scot (Noah Bernett), an 11-year-old orphan whose mother died of a drug overdose, their lives are turned upside down. The mother was the common-law wife of Sam’s brother Billy (Colin Cunningham), who left for Brazil promising to return and leaving the boy in the custody of child services. Scot is an effeminate sissy who loves boas, beads and Broadway musicals. The presence in Eric's home of an auburn-haired girlie-boy with a flouncing gait threatens his masculine self-image, not to mention his reputation as a macho sports hero. What makes Eric’s situation confusing is that his colleagues in broadcasting all know he is gay. Eric even admits that during his years as a professional player he was nicknamed Erica.
Sam believes Scot’s fondness for dressing up in his mother’s clothes and jewels and donning make-up is an unconscious expression of his grief and loneliness, a way of staying by her side. The impulsive kiss that Eric plants on Sam’s lips at a party late in the movie comes across more as an expression of horror than as a sign of his liberation from homophobia. He doesn’t begin to bond with Scot until he discovers that the boy can skate. At last he can both play surrogate father and demonstrate traditional manhood by channeling the boy’s twirling and dipping figure-skating talent toward hockey. Eric's unwillingness to become a parent eventually fades as Scot teaches Eric about accepting and loving your true self.
"Breakfast with Scot" is derived from the 2001 novel by Michael Downing, and viewers who have read the book are quite disappointed with this film. In the book the couple are a chiropractor and an editor at an Italian art magazine in Cambridge, Mass. The movie changes their occupations and moves the story to Toronto, Canada. It's a comedy with a message, quite well done in all departments. Damian Rogers wrote it's "a good-natured film about tolerance, acceptance and just being yourself." Robert Carli composed the original music, and Sean Reycraft wrote the screenplay based on Michael Downing's novel. Laurie Lynd directed.
