Victover Review of The Emperor's Club

The Emperor's Club (2002)

Teaching and Cheating or How to avoid turning into a marble statue

[6/10 · 28 July 2009]

Kevin Kline (Mister Hudert) has everything a director needs to make a statue of righteousness out of a human being. He would've been exactly that were it not because he has the very minimum of the human frailties to show he's alive. Take an expensive clothing store mannequin, put a patch on his breast pocket, check a few times his tie knot in the mirror, make him teach and speak non stop about virtue, character and contribution, stay away from women (sort of), have him row senselessly for physical fitness and discipline, and you have perfection in front of your eyes. All is left to do is to spray a coat or two of marble paint, let it dry out and there you are: another Greek or Roman statue, full size. Fortunately, Mister Hudert allows himself a touch of reality here and there when he decides to do something useful for a smart, silly, troubled, annoying student and he goes cheating; he's challenged to bat a ball and he loses his innocence by running away and hide from the consequences of a great hit; he engages himself in an almost invisible love affair with a married woman and when she tells him she is leaving probably for good he doesn't blink even knowing she's the love of his life. More than anything, he's able to recognize and accept where power is and money commands when a Senator pulls him down to ground level and kicks him out of his office. The whole story here is talking and trying to do what he knows is right and complying with the world rules. An interesting movie with a few, not many, original angles whose main contribution would be to let you in an obscenely wealthy people house, manor, theme park, mansion, palace, castle, whatever.