The Emperor’s Club

Kevin Kline provides some dramatic muscle to an otherwise garden-variety story about scholastic achievement, bent ethics (a direct reflection of today’s political and business climate), peer competition, circles of influence and something to do with hope. He plays a dedicated teacher much like those in Dead Poet’s Society and Mr. Holland’s Opus, and teaches his charges at a school for boys as much about life as he does about Roman and Greek history. This journey of enlightenment begins as he takes under his wing the disruptive son (Emile Hirsch from The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys) of a well-known senator and orchestrates the outcome of an annual school competition. Twenty years later, the grown boy (now played by Joel Gretsch) organizes a class replay of the competition as our professor questions whether he truly has succeeded in life. The movie is based on Ethan Canin’s short story The Palace Thief and is directed by Michael Hoffman (Soapdish).