Release Date: November 22, 2002
Starring: Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch, Rob Morrow, Embeth Davidtz, Joel Gretsch, Patrick Dempsey
Directed by: Michael Hoffman
Written by: Neil Tolkin
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (adult situations, some sexual content)
The Emperor's Club is one of those films that speaks not only to the heart, but also to the mind. Despite the poignant themes, however, the tale should have been left as the short story that was its source material. Directed by Michael Hoffman (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and written by Neil Tolkin (both Jury Duty and Richie Rich), the movie, which spans thirty years in the life of classics professor Arthur Hundert (Kevin Kline), is woefully thin at feature length.
It is comparable to Peter Weir's 1989 film Dead Poets Society, except without the beautiful mixture of comedy and drama engendered by Robin Williams. Kline is certainly Williams's equal as far as talent is concerned, and while he masterfully plays the lead, spilling pearls of wisdom, he has little support. The dialogue comes in fits and starts, and the story leaves much to be desired.
Based on a short story by Ethan Canin, Tolkin adapts a tale of two men at the prestigious St. Benedict's School for Boys, the dignified Hundert and his most precocious pupil, Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch). Bell comes to the school at the behest of his iron-willed father, a powerful politician, and this rocky relationship has prompted Sedgewick to become something of a troublemaker, prone to challenging authority. But Hundert, seeing the promise within Sedgewick, makes it his newest project to reform the young lad -- even, perhaps, at the cost of his own integrity.
The Emperor's Club is obviously a film adapted from a short story -- you can tell by the number of slow parts and uneven pace throughout the film. Fault the writer, Neil Tolkin, who, with his two major writing credits consisting of disasters of the Macaulay Culkin and Pauly Shore flavors, may have been out of his depth. A movie that spans thirty years is a huge step for any screenwriter -- perhaps too great a step for Tolkin.
One safety blanket for any aspiring screenwriter is the love story. However, this angle wasn't played up very well in The Emperor's Club and at times, it's easy to forget why the love interest, played by Embeth Davidtz, pops up from time to time -- as well as to wonder why she wasn't used more.
Another plot device -- and one that was used well in Dead Poets Society -- was the chemistry between the students, or in the case of The Emperor's Club, a lack thereof. Sedgewick Bell, Louis Masoudi, Deepak Mehta, and Martin Blythe had the key roles, but nothing more than a few moments together onscreen.
There did seem to be a lot of story to be told, though in movie form it boiled down to various lectures on doing the right thing. But credit The Emperor's Club with proposing this well-worn theme in a new and interesting way: While Hundert and Bell were in a constant battle of ethics, both struggled with what was right and wrong. In the end, a very practical resolution ties the story's loose ends together nicely.
Kline should be given credit for once again showing a remarkable dedication to his craft. On the screen, he not only commands attention, but also shows his own personal struggle to make the audience aware that he is both the teacher and the student. At the same time, however, Kline's dominance ends up turning the movie into a one-man show -- the rest of the characters and performances are hardly memorable.
The Emperor's Club aspires to teach life lessons on the big screen, something few films are able to do in an entertaining manner without coming across as forced or contrived. While I commend the way the film opened my own eyes, it failed to separate itself as a great film in a genre populated mostly by fluff.
all contents © 2002 Michael J. Eiff