MasterChugs Theater: ‘Rushmore’

I’m going to let you in on a secret, an answer to a question that is heard more and more frequently these days: Why do the tastes of film critics and the filmgoing audience differ so much? After all, something so critically lambasted as Armageddon can end up as the top grosser of the year, while something like A Simple Plan can garner glowing reviews and still face an uphill climb to profitability. Of course, exceptions like Titanic happen as well, but usually the critics’ judgment is unrelated to popular appeal.

The answer is the dreaded predictability of most films in this day and age. An average viewer, who goes to the movies once a month or even less frequently might face a standard specimen of any of Hollywood’s standard genres (romantic comedy, action, special effects extravaganza) rarely enough that the redundancy of these films goes unnoticed. For an average film critic, even one as lackadaisical as your faithful servant, watching more than a movie per week can get really boring really fast especially if these movies feel like they were all xeroxed off When Harry Met Sally, Die Hard, or Jurassic Park, all movies that weren’t marvels of originality to begin with.

That’s why the arrival of something like Rushmore feels like a proverbial breath or make it blast of fresh air. Rushmore is an offbeat comedy, an offbeat buddy film, an offbeat romance, and an offbeat revenge story. Or none of these things. Mix up some wildly varying comic elements, combine them with some of most deliciously deadpan acting in recent memory, add highly imaginative and inventive usage of the widescreen format, and get Rushmore, which is just about the least conventional and yet solidly enjoyable movie to come out in the past decade.

The protagonist of the film is Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzmann), 15-year old pupil of the elite Rushmore prep school. By all standards, Max is extraordinarily gifted and charming young man who excels in all kinds of activities – fencing, debating clubs and theater, where he wrote and staged couple of ambitious plays. Unfortunately, his impressive record at extracurricular activities was achieved at the expense of his academic life – he is about to be expelled because of abysmal grades. However, Max has one important asset in the form of Herman Blume (played by Bill Murray), local tycoon and former Rushmore pupil who sees Max Fischer as the complete opposite of his own obnoxious sons. However, Max would soon realise that there limits to what he can do when he falls in love with Rosemary Cross (played by Olivia Williams), teacher whom he would try to impress by building a luxury aquarium at the school premises. Max is finally being expelled and Rosemary not only rejects his advances, but adds insult to injury by starting relationship with Herman. Hurt and humiliated, Max would use his talents in the increasingly brutal conflict with his former friend.

Rushmore was directed by Wes Anderson and written by Anderson and his college friend Owen Wilson. Yes, that Owen Wilson. It’s their second film, after the slight but engaging Bottle Rocket. The legend of that film is well known, and suggests that Anderson and Wilson may have a little of Max Fischer in their own personalities-the film may have elements of self-portraiture. Anderson shows that people have good and bad aspects to them and that no one is perfect. None of the protagonists are so pure and innocent that they are beyond playing mean games or just being plain inconsiderate when their emotions take control. The movie has a strong romantic message to it which was a surprise to me, as I expected it to be more about the conflict between Herman and Max. The acting is excellent: Schwartzmann does a great job portraying a geeky Max, and Bill Murray’s portrayal of Herman as a resigned adult, who can’t possibly capture the energy Max possesses, is excellent. Olivia Williams is an extremely charming Rosemary.

Bill Murray has a way of turning up in perfect smaller roles; he stars in his own films, but since Tootsie, he has made supporting roles into a sort of parallel career. His Blume admires and hates Max for the same reason: because he is reminded of himself. There are times where Blume looks at Max with a combination of hatred and admiration; he’s frustrated in his desire to win Miss Cross for himself, but from an objective viewpoint can’t resist admiring his strategy.

It’s no coincidence that the film ends at the theater, with Max directing and playing the lead in his own play (the fact that the play is highly ambitious, if not highly original, is a nice subversive touch). After all, with all the film’s theatrical mise-en-scene, replete with opening and closing curtains at the beginning and the end, Rushmore is a celebration of life at its most theatrical, and as such would make a nice companion piece to Shakespeare in Love, which developed a similar theme in a vastly different manner. After all, life is unpredictable would it be asking too much for the movies to be the same way as well?