An almost royal Emperor's Club

The holiday season is here, and let the Oscar hopefuls come a'flocking. Case in point: The Emperor's Club, which really wants a best screenplay Award. It's not going to get it. The movie includes too many scenes completely irrelevant to the plot that slow the already plodding action down to receive that much-coveted honor. But for all its faults, the interesting fashion in which The Emperor's Club addresses the nature v. nurture argument and its unorthodox ending make it a worthy pick for the (very) patient intellectual.

What studio executives forgot to tell the unsuspecting public about Kevin Kline's latest vehicle for an Academy Award is that it's actually two movies squished together. The first hour or so is basically back-story for the second half of the film, and an hour is an eternity to wait for actual conflict. However, the extensive exposition gives time for the film to develop the in depth character study necessary for the second part to be intriguing and not merely boring.

The prequel to the plot is thus: In the mid-1970s, William Hundert (Kevin Kline) taught Classical History at St. Benedict's School for Boys. His students were the brightest bananas in the bunch, all ready and willing to allow him to fill their eager little minds with the lessons of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Enter Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch), the son of a senator from West Virginia, and in politically correct terms, a "problem child." In more brutal terms, an underachieving brat.

Every year St. Benedict's holds a Mr. Julius Caesar Contest, a sort of sudden death It's Academic with togas. Hundert inspires Bell to pick up his failing grades and become a serious competitor. With the help of a little test-score fudging by Hundert, Bell becomes one of three finalists. Up until this point, the movie has been little but a typical, fluffy Hollywood redemption story, but then Bell ruins his moment in the spotlight by cheating, switching his character from the Struggling Hero to the Deplorable Obstacle. Hundert is instructed not to expose Bell, but instead engineers his loss to the genuinely brilliant Deepak Mehta (Rishi Mehta). Following his defeat, Bell reverts back to his previous rebellious ways.

Now the film gets interesting. Twenty-five years later, Bell has become the CEO of a large corporation, and he wants a re-match to "reclaim his intellectual honor." All of the old schoolboys gather at a resort to witness the contest, and Hundert comes out of retirement to moderate the match and see whether Bell has reformed.

The Emperor's Club makes a striking comparison between the characters as adolescents and as adults. Hundert has always seen himself as a molder of character, yet the personalities of his students remain very much unchanged before and after they have left his classroom forever. This element of self-delusion creates a new dimension to the film, sparing it from the repulsive protagonist worship that is often seen in movies with similar themes.

Marring The Emperor's Club is the inclusion of unnecessary material. For example, there's this woman, Elizabeth (Embeth Davidtz), who's not even important enough to have a last name. From the two scenes that she appears, we glean that Hundert may be in love with her, but unfortunately, she's married. Eventually she rectifies that little detail and they tie the knot. Elizabeth shows up for maybe four, short scenes and does nothing other than look beautiful and add time to clock. Her sole purpose is to provide a love interest for Hundert, because Rule #1 of Moviemaking is that the protagonist must always have a Love Interest.

Aside from Davidtz, the acting in The Emperor's Club is engaging and convincing. The students, especially Hirsch and Jesse Eisenberg (Louis Masoudi), display a chemistry and camaraderie that carries the film into their adult interactions. Kline, though plagued with an unfortunate tendency to spout clichés worse than Yoda's, brings gravity his idealistic, slightly naïve character that conveys great depth and emotion.

Although The Emperor's Club is tedious at times and banal at others, its willingness to portray the protagonist in a slightly negative light and settle for an ambiguous ending that leaves room for interpretation sets it above standard fare.