Old story falls flat in newest retelling

The Emperor's Club / rated PG-13

The story goes like this: A teacher at an all-boys school inspires his students to greatness.

Sound familiar?

If you're thinking "Dead Poets Society," you're thinking the same thing I did when I saw the previews for "The Emperor's Club."

Kevin Kline plays William Hundert, an intellectual history teacher who keeps his students at St. Benedicts school mesmerized until troublemaker Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch) arrives. Suddenly, the students who clung to his every word are no longer paying attention.

Instead they are playing pranks, starting food fights and escaping to the forbidden grounds of the neighboring girls' school. Bell is deaf to Hundert's threats. So the teacher goes to visit Senator Bell, the boy's father. It soon becomes apparent that young Bell is modeling his father's arrogant behavior.

Hundert starts to feel sympathy for the boy, seeing him as a diamond in the rough. He tries to shape the boy into a model student. For a while it seems to work. Sedgewick is studying, listening and, what's more, applying himself.

But when the ultimate test of character comes (the Mr. Julius Caesar contest), Sedgewick returns to his cheating ways to get what he wants.

From there we are transported 25 years into the future, where the graying Hundert is attending a rematch of the Mr. Julius Caesar at the impressive abode of Sedgewick Bell (now played by Joel Gretsch). At this point, Hundert feels like a failed teacher, a man who let down his students by failing to change Sedgewick's immoral ways.

You may ask yourself why Hundert cares so much. There are plenty of themes and messages tacked into the movie as explanation. But in the end, Hundert doesn't seem to have a motive.

Hundert's passion for his students seems displaced. He tries to do the best by his students for no other reason than the sake of being a good teacher. Kline is an excellent actor, but his portrayal of Hundert is flat.

The other actors (including the students) seem to follow Kline's example, offering no motive for their behavior. Why does Sedgewick want so desperately to win the Mr. Julius Caesar contest? Why do any of them do what they do?

There are a lot of useless messages in this movie. Let me add a message of my own: A great message (or two) can't make up for bad acting.

Grade: C

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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