The Emperor's Club might just be one of the most complex movies I've seen in some time. From the very first scene, I hated it. The story concerns a very snooty teacher at a very snooty school whose goal in life is to mold the characters of the young lives in his care.

Kevin Kline plays Mr. Hundert, a teacher at St. Benedict's school. An early scene on the school grounds shows him sauntering around proudly sporting his school tie and blazer. He stops some impetuous youth in his tracks, pompously suggesting he should stick to the path. It's advice he gives, but doesn't heed.

Next we see Hundert in the classroom. He's the classics teacher, and his 9th grade students--here they're referred to as third formers, in the model of the better British public schools--are fascinated by Hundert's truth of history--"a man's character is his fate."

To give the story some direction, the rebel student appears. He is Sedgwick Bell, the son of a Senator, and he's not interested in Hundert's magic and lures his schoolmates with pranks, wise-cracks, and the joi-de-vie popular rich kids revel in.

Hundert goes to Washington to see Bell's father, and discovers that Daddy doesn't think much of Mr. Hundert either. The two men differ on the role of education.. Hundert thinks it's his job to build Sedgewick's character, Daddy sees the school as an elite child-care service that will ensure his boy looks educated to the outside world. The diploma is less important than the tie.

Now Hundert is a snooty proud individual who recognizes a gauntlet when he sees one. He quickly picks it up and decides that whatever it takes, he will mold Sedgewick into one of his scholarly sausages.

What happens next is really, really fascinating. Rather than uphold his own moral principles, he buys into Sedgewick's. When Sedgewick want to borrow a book from the library that is for in-house use only, Mr. Hundert talks down the librarian, and Sedgewick gets the book.

From there, Sedgewick continues to mold Mr. Hundert, all the while letting him believe that the influence is the other way around. I won't delve further into plot lest I spoil it. Let me just say that this movie is a complicated morality tale that likely purports to indicate that a man's character is his fate. I beg to differ. None of the characters in "The Emperor's Club" are worth a dime.

The only one with any integrity is Sedgewick, the villain. At least he is able to identify and call a spade a spade.

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