Rushmore left me a little disappointed. I was expecting a sort of screwball comedy from the trailers. Instead, it teeters on the edge of melodrama and only touches on truly comic moments. Those moments are little treasures, but for the most part this is a somewhat depressing movie about a kid who falls into infatuation with a woman far too old and completely wrong for him. Jason Schwartzman, who plays the hero, Max Fischer, is able to make Max into a completely original character. He is the kind you guy you might remember from high school who was fanatically involved in extracurricular activities at a great expense to his academic life. Max is such a person. He is a student at Rushmore Academy, a prestigious prep school on the outskirts of his small town. He is there not because of his rich parentage but his grade school performance, on a scholarship. His dad is a barber, although he tells them he's a brain surgeon. In between flunking his various courses, he is busily founding the Rushmore Beekeeper's Association, the Remote Control Airplane Pilot's Club, the Living Arts Group, the fencing team...you get the idea. His pride and joy are the Max Fischer Players, a drama club that puts on his own interpretation of "Scorpio" that inspires a fistfight in the wings. He takes his extracurricular activities very, very seriously. He is, in short, in love with being at Rushmore. But soon after we are introduced to him, he finds something else to love: Ms. Cross, the first grade teacher. She has just started at the Academy, and he wanders into her class by accident, falling head over heels. They talk, he learns that she loves Latin, and he switches his adamant opposition to Latin courses at Rushmore to presenting a signed petition to keep teaching it. Soon, he is tearing down trees on the soccer field to make room for the new aquarium she dreams of. Ms. Cross is no fool. She picks up immediately on Max's infatuation with her, suggesting gently that she is too old for him. He disagrees silently. It is not about age with him; such considerations are irrelevant to teenage love. "She's my Rushmore," he says, and that sums it up for him; there is no higher praise in his mind. Complications: Ms. Cross has begun seeing Herman Blume, the local steel tycoon whose own marriage is on the rocks. Blume is rich but filled with self-loathing. The interesting thing is that while he and Max become rivals, they start as friends, and their friendship is maintained in a odd, standoffish way even at the height of their emnity. Blume is impressed with Max's heart and determination even before Ms. Cross enters the picture. Afterward he is forced to respect his deviousness, so that even as Max is releasing bees into Blume's luxury suite at a hotel or Blume is backing over Max's bike with his car, they have a grudging respect for each other. The problem with the movie is that the situation it creates is ripe with opportunities for comedy, but it frequently ignores them, instead focusing on the pain of Max's crush. I don't argue that it should overlook this factor, but place it in the context of the humor, however dark. It is clear that comic moments are carefully inserted, and I enjoyed them. But there is room for a lot more, and I felt like filler material was used instead. The film meanders from one scene to the next. There are parts that dragged as Max slowly comes to realize the foolishness of his position, but I was less moved by these than by his relationship with Blume and the way they played off each other's personalities. It's too bad, really, since the movie has a lot of potential to be something more. Bill Murray is an actor I have missed seeing over the years, and his few appearances since "Ghostbusters" have mostly been flops. I enjoyed his portrayal of Herman Blume, the quiet way he suggests deeply rooted insecurities in a powerful man. Schwartzman conveys real pain amidst the absurdity of his situation, and Olivia Williams is effective as the exasperated Ms. Cross. All in all, I liked the characters, the plot and the acting. I just wish they were in a more tightly scripted movie.
