No doubt some film critics and moviegoers will dismiss The Emperor's Club as just another in a long line of "inspirational teacher" flicks like To Sir, With Love, Stand and Deliver, Dead Poets Society, and Mr. Holland's Opus. In fact, The Emperor's Club even uses the tagline, "In everyone's life there's that one person who makes all the difference" -- a statement applicable to any of the other movies mentioned. 

However, I say give The Emperor's Club a chance. It tackles the subject from a new angle, even though it appears to be going straight down the beaten path. It gives us a confident prep school teacher (Kevin Kline) and his bad-egg student (Emile Hirsch). An inevitable conclusion seems in order, right? Not for this movie. It has a trick up its sleeve.  

From this point on, I'll go into more detail, so consider yourself warned about a few spoilers. The Emperor's Club dares to ask a discomforting question: what actual  difference can a teacher make? Kline's William Hundert smugly thinks he has the answers to that, but his thoughts are challenged more than once here. A few of the characters suggest that what he teaches -- classical history from the Greek-Roman era -- has no practical use. The movie does nothing to refute this -- about the only thing of value shown for his teachings is to provide ammunition at the school's traditional game-show-like trivia contest. Hundert's contributions as a teacher seem further devalued when it becomes apparent that his incorrigible student has learned nothing from him at all.

Finally, Hundert realizes where the worth of his teaching lies. Yes, the bad-egg student marks one of his failures, but it is only one. Were he to look around, he would see all the successes surrounding him -- all those other students who were influenced by him and who were willing to learn all along. By giving us a story about how a teacher fails to convert an uncooperative student, the movie shows us that a teacher's value is not so readily measurable, not so quantitative. But it's there nonetheless, and it comes through in the way most students grow to regard themselves more highly. The Emperor's Club makes the case for a strong education and good teachers being more valuable in the way they help increase an average student's self-esteem, and not strictly in the knowledge imparted.  

Although I like this message, I think it's too bad the movie tries so hard to spell it out for us. Everything about the film can be figured out by an intelligent viewer. No need to go to such lengths to make sure we get it (a relevant example involves one of the worst plot devices in the movies -- when you get to the bathroom scene, you'll see it). It weakens the film. Still, The Emperor's Club is held up by strong performances from its cast. Kline plays Mr. Hundert as a person who has probably seen all those "inspirational teacher" movies and has taken them too much to heart. Kline's skills as an actor come through most strongly in those moments when he has reasons to doubt himself. Unlike the teacher played by Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, a character whose liberalism looks down at the stuffy old school, Kline's Hundert is an almost-arrogant teacher, proud of his stuffiness, a man able to learn from being humbled while trying to retain his dignity.

Meanwhile, Hirsch effectively plays a student who teases us with the hope he can truly turn around; we actually root for him as much as we want to send him to his room without supper. The most notable of his young-actor peers is Jesse Eisenberg. Last seen as the nephew in Roger Dodger, he continues to be endearing and funny in this new movie.

The Emperor's Club won't be the last of the "inspirational teacher" movies, but at least it dares to make an assertion more applicable to real life than those of other such movies, the ones selling an easier ideal of the teacher taking charge of a class and changing students in some noticeable, inspirational way. By showing how a good teacher strengthens and reinforces a sense of self-worth, not only among bad students, but among students already on the right path, this movie recognizes the more subtle molding that likely takes place in classrooms across the land. 

(Review also posted on www.windowtothemovies.com.)

Released by Universal Pictures and rated "PG-13" for some sexual content.