# Rushmore (1998)

### reviewed by
Mark O'Hara

    Rushmore (1998)

    A Film Review by Mark O'Hara

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When you decide you don't like a film while you are still watching it, it is hard to turn back.

Sure, I like when films take quirky and unexpected turns as much as the next moviegoer. But when the final third of 'Rushmore' commenced its pointless darkness - a futile evocation of the whimsicality of revenge and friendship - I had nearly made up my mind that all the press received by the film was wrong-headed. The final minutes were more to my liking, but the film was still marred for me.

'Rushmore' opens with a fantasy in which the main character, Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), imagines himself solving a math problem that would baffle Will Hunting. His classmates in the private academy are ecstatic, and Max is a hero. Of course this scene proves ironic, as we soon see that Max is one of the worst students on campus. Having attended Rushmore since his primary grades, Max has immersed himself in extra-curriculars - he is either an officer or the founder of organizations involving beekeeping, fencing, lacrosse, French, wrestling, stamp and coin collecting, and many others. Most impressively, Max writes and stages his own plays. In fact, one of the film's strengths is these productions: their exaggerated grittiness becomes a tour-de-force, and we cannot help but admire and like their creator. Behind the set of Max's 'Serpico' a small-gauge elevated train runs through a miniature city more detailed than David Letterman's set. Aside from Max's fantasies and quirky imagination, we also see inventive narrative techniques, such as a theater curtain opening and closing, the months of the story's span flashing across the velvet folds. So there are several charming and eccentric elements that endear the story to the viewer.

Unfortunately, Max's behavior itself ends up over-the-top.

After 15 year-old Max meets and falls in love with a Rushmore first grade teacher (Rosemary Cross, played by Olivia Williams), he begins a pattern of behavior that is at first worshipping - pouring her lemonade as she grades papers in the library - and finally obsessive. Practiced in the pathology of lying, Max deceives and manipulates countless friends; because his actions become so despicable, we are perhaps unwilling to forgive him wholly. Further, would the victims of such a young skunk realistically not only accept apologies but befriend Max again? Here's the rub.

Bill Murray acts very well in the film. As Herman Blume, a wealthy alumnus of Rushmore, Murray tempers his goofy comic expression with a cynical ennui that fits just right with his part. Max compares very favorably to Blume's twin hooligan sons, and Blume likes Max's sycophantic ambition so well that he chucks Max a job offer. One of Murray's strong suits is his sudden bursts of silliness, sprinting away across a playground or darting into a children's basketball game to block a shot. Later begins one of the major conflicts, the subplot encompassing the rivalry between Max and Herman, after Herman too falls in love with Miss Cross. Again Murray is properly deadpan, the camera lingering on his jaded but hilarious expression just long enough. Note his matching shirts and neckties, a wink at classy tackiness!

Jason Schwartzman does a fine job as well. His resemblance to a very young Dustin Hoffman is inevitable, especially his head-on approach to other characters. It's a shame that the screenplay by -------and director Wes Anderson does in the credibility of his character. The writing also short changes Olivia Williams' character: Miss Cross is pretty, but aside from missing a dead husband and reading to her students, she never does anything that develops her character. We fail to witness even a montage of moments that bond her to either male character trying to win her attention and love.

Mason Gamble as Dirk Calloway, Max's protégé at Rushmore, and --------- as Margaret Yang, Max's quasi-girlfriend and gun moll in one of his plays, both hand in wonderful performances. Most of their motivations seem right, and their acting shows a nice transparency.

The time of 'Rushmore' - 89 minutes - is right. My wife looked at her watch even during this duration. I am a man who like to fall in love with a movie, and with 'Rushmore" I was just able to like its characters. Instead of watching a thoroughly engaging story, what I saw was a dark and underdeveloped character study.

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