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FOLLOWING IN THE footsteps of “Mr. Holland’s Opus” and “Dead Poets Society,” “The Emperor’s Club” is yet another tale of the bonding and life lessons between teacher and students.
Although this movie tries to tear at your heart and teach life lessons and values, it fails in its attempt. This failure is due to the fact that these lessons are broadcast to the audience from the very beginning of the movie.
The same cookie-cutter lessons are fed to us in very un-original ways. You would think that when watching a movie about a group of “intellectual elite,” there would be some sort of thinking involved, instead of this movie, which was designed like a Hallmark greeting card.
Directed by Michael Hoffman (“Soapdish,” 1991; “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” 1999), “The Emperor’s Club” is set in 1976 and revolves around the life of Professor William Hundert (Kevin Kline). Prof. Hundert, who is the assistant headmaster at an all-boys prep school (St. Benedict’s) and also teaches a class on Roman and Greek History and Western Civilization.
Hundert not only teaches the boys about history, but more importantly focuses on molding them into virtuous, honest and moral men. All seems well for Hundert and his class of elite students until the troublemaker arrives.
Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch) is this obnoxious meddler. Although the story wants you to see Bell as some sort of horrible student and a threat to the education of the others, he is more or less your average 15-year-old boy. The reasons he is a “rebel” are quite weak: talking back in class, playing pranks, corrupting the boys by starting food fights, having a rich and powerful father who is a senator and introducing the other boys to the opposite sex and porn.
Of course, our stale hero Hundert at first feels threatened by his new student, as Bell tries to win the boys over with his unacceptable behavior. After a meeting with Bell’s father, Hundert realizes that this poor boy is just misunderstood, due to the lack of a father/son relationship.
Hundert begins to take Bell under his wing, putting courage and faith in the boy. Unfortunately, Hundert will learn that on the outside Bell seems to respond and change his ways, but on the inside he is still the same.
As if the lesson wasn’t learned in the first hour of the movie, we have to take it one step further as Hundert revisits the boys 25 years later and sees for himself that although he had placed belief in Bell, nothing really changes; following in his father’s footsteps, Bell is now a powerful business man who still lies and cheats in order to gain status in society.
Among the many drawbacks to the movie is the fact that we never really get inside the head of Hundert. The audience rarely knows what he is thinking, what in his past shaped him or what he really does besides teach a single history class and row a boat every morning.
This movie certainly declares its morals and lessons in such clichCB) lines as: “Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be?” and “Follow the path. (Because it is good for the grass?) No, because it is good for YOU.” These lessons however are presented without passion, making a very dull and unmemorable impression.
This is simply a story without surprises. I kept waiting for the plot to thicken or some sort of surprise twist, unfortunately it was just one dull two-hour ride.
“The Emperor’s Club” opens Nov. 22 and is rated PG-13 for some sexual content.
