Emperor - 2 smiles

If you think “Emperor” is about Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones), you’re in for a big disappointment.  Inexplicably, the script, written by Vera Blasi, pushes the most compelling character into the background to focus on one of MacArthur’s assistants and his romantic travails. Matthew Fox plays Gen. Bonner Fellers, the American’s top Japan expert and point man on the inquiry into Hirohito’s involvement in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Fox’s performance is bland and unimpressive whereas Jones brings appropriate swagger to the larger-than-life MacArthur.

In 1945, MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, was tasked with overseeing Japan’s disarmament and democratization. Engineering vast social change while respecting the nation’s traditions would be challenge enough, but MacArthur had an additional assignment. He was to recommend whether Emperor Hirohito should be deposed and tried for war crimes. MacArthur assigns the investigation to Fellers. The script throws in a clichéd love story involving Fellers and Aya (Eriko Hatsune), a Japanese teacher he met when she was an exchange student in the US, but who is now missing. Their relationship plays out, often in intrusive flashbacks, as a time-waster, not as character development as director Peter Webber might have wanted. “Emperor” turns out to be a dry, overly simplified history lesson. Too bad. It could have been a gripping tale. 3/8/13