Like almost all controversies, there is less to Breakfast With Scot than the headlines that preceded it.

"The gay hockey movie" -- a nickname it received after the Toronto Maple Leafs made some kind of history by allowing their logo to be used in a movie with a same-sex theme -- is not really about hockey at all.

It is, in fact, a minor domestic fable, awash in good intentions, in which the "gay" characters are the straightest in the movie (a repressed and closeted couple of men who are taught how to free their spirits by the "flamboyant" 11-year-old they adopt). It wouldn't be out of place as a Disney TV movie, so thoroughly do people learn lessons in its last act.

It is also thuddingly miscast. Professional nice guy Tom Cavanagh (ex of TV's Ed and the cruelly underappreciated Love Monkey) is far too benign for Eric, the jock-turned-broadcaster and jerk he's called upon to play. As well, with his build (think of a more slight Doug Gilmour), he's not only supposed to be an ex-NHL player, but an ex-Leaf enforcer -- which no one who's ever even seen a hockey game would buy for a minute. (I've tried, but for the life of me, I can't think of one "goon" in history who wasn't built like either an oak tree or a fire-hydrant).

Eric and his sports lawyer boyfriend Sam (Ben Shenkman) lead a rather smooth-running Oscar-and-Felix life, the former spending most of his time watching hockey and drinking beer while the latter cleans up and complains. That is, until Sam's irresponsible brother Billy (Colin Cunningham) leaves him with a young boy he's fathered but won't take responsibility for after the mother dies.

The disruption of Eric and Sam's comfortable rut is only part of the problem. Scot (Noah Bernett) is about as stereotypically "gay" as an 11-year-old can be allowed to be, kind of Craig Russell in training with his penchant for dresses, feather boas and Broadway showtunes. Though a kid in most schools who's this "out" about his sexual identity is likely to run into a world of hurt, Scot has an insouciance that paves over the punches he takes from bullies (one even gradually becomes his best friend). Credit Bernett, who's the only actor in the movie clearly inhabiting his role.

With the only thing gay about Eric being the word "gay," he reacts as any straight father would to the revelation that Scot can skate (albeit figure skate) -- he signs him up for hockey. Though this is kind of like getting a deer to join a herd of buffalo, the whole fiasco becomes the template for Eric (and Sam, being the "go along to get along" non-entity he is in the movie) to learn that they, rather than the boy, are the ones who should change.

Bernett's gliding and funny performance is the number one reason to see Breakfast With Scot. Though amiable as always, Cavanagh seems at sea in it. And some formidable Canadian actors, including Megan Follows and Sheila McCarthy have little more than cameos.

It all adds up to a "nice" film, but nothing worth raising one's blood pressure over.

(This film is rated STC)

SUN Rating: 2.5 out of 5