Film review
Kevin Kline plays professor William Hundert in "The Emperor's Club," or "Dead Poets Society: The Sequel." And we all know that the sequel is never as good as the original.
Dead Poets Society II
When you're watching a movie and you can't help but think of the movies you've seen before that resemble it, there's a problem.
Throughout "The Emperor's Club" I couldn't get 1989's "Dead Poets Society" and even the two "Harry Potter" films out of my head. I tried. I really did.
In "Emperor's Club" Kevin Kline plays William Hundert, a Western civilization professor at an all-boys' prep school.
The new school year is going swimmingly well until Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch, "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"), the spoiled son of a senator, joins Hundert's class. A conflict between teacher and student, a la "Election" and "Rushmore," ensues.
When the film jumps two decades ahead to show the grown-up students' reunion with Hundert, it loses whatever "Dead Poets Society"-like charm it might have had and disintegrates into a preachy morality play on the topic of cheating. (Other films that I haven't seen already have covered the topic of cheating, such as, well, um, "Cheaters.")
A few times I allowed myself to be affected by "Emperor Club's" shameless schmaltz, but for the most part I easily resisted it. While "Dead Poets Society" has heart and soul, "The Emperor's Club" feels like an ABC After-School Special.
And Kevin Kline is no Robin Williams. Kline's uninspiring, overrated performance doesn't convince us of the importance of knowing about the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations any better than Hundert convinces anyone (except his brainiac students) in the film.
Hirsch, a promising young actor, gives the best performance in the film, and it's too bad that his performance was wasted on such a mediocre project.
My grade: C+
11:47:10 AM 
|
