Generally, a reviewer will use the keyword "offbeat"
to describe a film that is too strange and uneven to be
recommended, but which displays enough talent that the filmmakers
deserve to be noticed. "Quirky" serves a similar
purpose. In any case, Rushmore, the second film from director Wes
Anderson, can only be described as quirky and offbeat, regardless
of how those words are construed. I doubt, however, that too many
viewers will find Rushmore anything but disarmingly fun.
It stars newcomer Jason Schwartzman as a 15-year-old boy named
Max Fischer, who I'm sure would hate to be called a boy.
Unfortunately for Max, he is a boy, and in all the wrong ways.
For one, he is totally immature and has no sense of
self-restraint. Despite his nerdy appearance, he isn't obsessed
with any one thing, but rather everything. That includes
beekeeping, fencing, flying kites, and debating in Russian. It
doesn't include his schoolwork at the prestigious and expensive
Rushmore Academy, where he was accepted on a scholarship after
writing a play about Watergate in the second grade.
Early in the film, Max befriends a cynical metal tycoon named
Herman Blume (Bill Murray) who, while one of Rushmore's greatest
benefactors, instructs the students in chapel to "get the
rich kids in the crosshairs and take them down." Herman's
married life is a comic sham, his two indistinguishable sons
complete buffoons. In one of the films' hilarious cinematic
references, Herman takes on the role of Dustin Hoffman in The
Graduate, jumping into his private pool and hiding beneath the
surface of the water. Both Max and Herman quickly see the bond
connecting them: their common need to escape their dull lives by
whatever means necessary.
Max also meets and falls head over heels for Miss Cross (Olivia
Williams), a new teacher at Rushmore who is effortlessly lovely.
He immediately becomes her sycophant, even forming a successful
petition to reinstate the Latin requirement after having tried
for years to get it removed, just because she mentions it in
passing. It is typical both of the film's droll tone and Max's
endearing arrogance that when Miss Cross rebuffs his swift
advances on the basis that their age difference is too great, Max
responds drily, "So you're not attracted to me. C'est la
vie." The narrative drive of the film comes from the fact
that Herman is in love with Miss Cross as well. This naturally
puts a damper on his relationship with Max, which turns
increasingly sour.
But only for a while. One of the notable features of Rushmore,
and one that makes it fiendishly difficult to describe, is its
inconsistency of tone. Sometimes the array of quirky characters
(including Max's father Bert, played touchingly by Seymour
Cassel, and a plucky female version of Max played by Sara Tanaka)
threaten to steal the show. But frequently the film taps into its
more serious side. Consider, for instance, a wonderful scene
where Miss Cross confronts Max with the question of what sex
would really serve in their relationship and he has nothing to
say.
Rushmore is also inconsistent in its style, which veers from
reality-based comedy to total fantasy and back with the greatest
of ease, especially in the final scene. This is not at all a bad
thing per se, and director Anderson uses it to comic advantage.
But it also means that Max's world becomes more imaginary, his
problems harder to translate to reality. By the end, it is
unclear whether Anderson has made a successful commentary on
adolescence, or just a goofy original film.
Maybe it's neither. In a moment of psychic pain, Max angrily
tells Herman, "I saved Latin. What did you ever do?"
However amusing the line may be, Max is dead serious, and we can
feel his frustration. As a vision of life from one oddly
watchable character's point of view, for whatever that's worth,
Rushmore is a masterpiece.