The Emperor’s Club
One of the things you’ll learn from Kevin Kline’s new film, The Emperor’s Club, is that it’s really okay for middle-aged men to cry at the drop of a hat in public. Their manhood will not be questioned. It’s not a corny script invention; this stuff happens in real life. Tears freely flow like a hurricane pummeling the Louisiana countryside and you may be left asking yourself, “What in the hell are they crying for?” By the end of it I was crying too… out of boredom.
The normally invigorating Kevin Kline plays William Hundert, a by-the-book professor of Classics at St. Benedicts School for Boys. Lectures focus on the works of Aristotle, Socrates and other ancient writers and philosophers. Interesting when discussing scholarly topics, Hundert is privately dull. Unmarried and lonely, he rows daily on the lake near the school for exercise. He is engaging in class yet dull and distant in personal relationships and he seems to think that that’s just fine. Kline, I suppose, given the script, plays Hundert expertly here, but the man is so lifeless that it seems that Kline just phones in the role of a zombie. It’s a pity because he’s a great actor and could have made Hundert’s dull character far more interesting.
Hundert hosts a yearly contest at St. Benedicts’ known as “The Mr. Julius Caesar” contest. The top Classics students at the school square off in a Jeopardy!-like setting answering minutia regarding the ancient world. The film’s conflict arises when one of the contestants attempts to cheat and Hundert catches him in the act. It will become a lifelong obsession of the cheater to rectify his blemished record through any academic means necessary.
T his film is supposed to answer the big questions like, “should a man be allowed to succeed through dishonesty?” but it came off as preachy and aloof. Why should we care about William Hundert? His character seems conceited and self righteous. Is it reason enough to care about what happens to Hundert simply because he’s an honest man? And if I don’t what does that say about me as a person? Does that make me a dishonest schmuck or just critical of this film? Should I even attempt to care since the film makes even that so difficult to do?
Kline, who’s work I’ve admired going on 15 years, does not shine in this film. The role of Hundert seems like a role that Oscar-whore Kevin Spacey would have considered and then declined with a sneer. “There just isn’t much to work with,” he might say, and strangely enough I would agree with him. What passes for substance here is little more than grown men crying about lost opportunities and their innocent days of school. Kline’s performance, and the whole film for that matter seem more suited to the likes of a movie-of-the-week on a second-rate network rather than a feature film.