Kevin Kline (Life As a House) stars in this story of a troubled student and the long-term friendship he shares with his prep school teacher. Emile Hirsch (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) is the student and the film is directed by Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day). Many films come to mind when one thinks of the student-mentor relationship theme. Most notable among them are The Dead Poets Society and Finding Forrester. Those two films were commercially successful films that presented their own individual twists on the theme and were blessed with great performances by Robin Williams in the former, and Sean Connery in the latter. They were both critical successes and commercial box office draws and now another respected actor in Kevin Kline tries his hand at the quickly becoming common sub-genre in a film he had originally planned to direct himself before Hoffman ended up with that responsibility. The end result is a film that will likely be mentioned come Oscar voting time.
I'll be honest: I find Kevin Kline to be one of the finest and more under appreciated actors of today. From his award-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda to his performance in last year's Life As a House, I've found him to be consistently effective in each and every role he takes on, and, in my opinion, he delivers once again in The Emperors Club. He gives an energetic and multi-layered accomplished performance that makes for an entertaining film when he's on screen, which is easily three fourths of the film. Opposite the established Kline, Emile Hirsch gives an honest performance that doesn't come to be overbearing like the performances of some young actors can occasionally become.
Direction by Hoffman isn't flashy but correctly allows for the talented leads to command the screen without much getting in their way. He is able to pace the film so that it never does become boring despite the methodical nature of the plot. He also makes sure to tell the audience enough about the characters so that we actually care about what happens to them. The film does at times seems to have kept in some scenes that could be labeled as frivolous that slow the main focus of the film and take one's attention from the main story with needless subplots but they are few and far between. That one small complaint doesn't take away from what is a moving, interesting, and heartwarming film. The Emperors Club carries the necessary emotional depth and solid acting for a film of its type to work and this one works almost perfectly.
Rating: 88
joe@currentlyplaying.com
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