听 What did the Romans ever do for us? Quite a lot, according to boarding school Classics professor William Hundert (Kline), who believes that the study of antiquity will make his students into honourable leaders of the future.
"Not to know what happened before you were born is to be forever a child," he tells the fresh-faced kids in his class as he guides them from childhood to manhood.
Into this idealized school world bursts Sedgewick Bell (Hirsch), a student who's more interested in testing the limits of Hundert's authority than learning the names of Roman emperors.
Hundert makes it his mission to transform this young Visigoth (he is, after all, the son of a senator) and encourages him to take part in the "Mr Julius Caesar" competition - the school quiz equivalent of Mastermind, but with togas.
Starting off as a retread of "Dead Poets Society", then transforming into something that's eager to be slightly darker and less clear cut, "The Emperor's Club" just doesn't have the mettle to go the full distance.
It fudges its plot twists (Hundert massages Bell's grades), before racing towards the inevitable feelgood finale.
Taking simplistic pot-shots at American politics, while holding up this stuffy educator as a beacon of moral guidance (he has the strength of character to learn from his own mistakes), this is a liberal drama that's so safe, the camera was probably wrapped up in cotton wool.
No doubt Hundert's kindly, paternalistic teacher is exactly the kind of role model Middle America wants to believe in at this juncture in history - a good man who, despite his flaws, still manages to do what is morally right.
For the rest of the world, though, the unthinking submission to the film's "teacher knows best" school of thought might well seem disturbing.
"The Emperor's Club" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd November 2002.
