Emperor’s Club needs converts
by Brian Abrams, reporter

    Some may feel the urge to polish up on ancient Greek trivia. Others may relish the adolescent males prancing around in togas. For most, however, The Emperor’s Club is just another mediocre film.

   Oscar winner Kevin Kline stars in another squeaky-clean movie. He gives a solid performance, though, as Prof. William Hundert, the assistant headmaster at St. Benedict’s school for boys.

   He teaches Greek and Roman history to young chaps, all of whom succumb to the professor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi-like teachings.

   All is well at St. Benedict’s.

   One day, Hundert meets his challenge, a smart aleck named Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch).

   Bell is a real troublemaker. He takes his hormones-in-overdrive classmates across the lake to an all-girl school. He gawks at French smut magazines, with other shticks to follow.

   Twenty-five minutes into the film, Sedgewick makes the viewer want to smack him repeatedly with a rubber hose.

   Bell is also kin to the crackerjack Sen. Hyram Bell (Harris Yulin). When our beloved teacher schedules a sit-down with the congressman, we soon learn the not-so-complex roots of Sedgewick’s trying antics.

   The teacher does, however, remain a champion of many of his students.

   Fred Masoudi (Jesse Eisen-berg) and Deepak Mehta (Rishi Mehta) are two of his favorites. These two pupils worked diligently all year in order to qualify for the honorable Mr. Caesar competition.

   Drama rises, however, when Sedgewick finagles his way as a third contender in the privileged ceremony.

   With the little monsters aside, the secondary storylines are far more interesting and regrettably undeveloped. Naturally, the professor has his love interest (Embeth Davidtz), but she is married.

   Moreover, there is perpetual contention for the office of headmaster.

   Hundert’s devotion to the perplexity of his students keeps him from achieving professional and romantic success, but the movie does not develop this theme well.

   This approach would have been much more riveting and have drawn a bigger picture.

   Why use 109 minutes of reel on whether Bell and the gang know which emperor served after Comatus?

   (Rating ** on a ***** scale )