Rushmore (Remastered)

Rushmore, which initially appeared to be a nerdy Ferris Bueller going the "Mrs Robinson" manoeuvre: the cool, diffident "screw authority" teenage boy develops a crush/quasi romance with an idealistic, young, attractive teacher. Within minutes it was pretty clear that what was being delivered was very different, and far more intriguing.

Ferris' appeal was calculated to adhere to the norm - cute in an unobtrusive way, cheeky disdain for authority, your average loveable larrikin. Jason Schwartzman's Max Fisher is much pricklier - a dark, determined, bizarre and troubled boy. A friend watching Rushmore with me disliked Max Fisher from start to finish: "he's a pathological liar and a stalker, and he just looks so weird". But Jason Schwartzman somehow managed to pull someone likeable out of those (admittedly, true) characteristics. Max Fisher is a liar - but survival as a poor kid in a rich, privileged college pretty well necessitates a healthy amount of bullshitting. He is a stalker... hmm, we'll justify that one later... And yes, he does look weird - when he’s not wearing his school uniform on the weekend, he resembles a middle aged accountant trapped in a teenaged boy's body, with what verges dangerously upon a monobrow to boot. But Max Fisher is somehow loveable nonetheless, pacing around in his wacky red beret with nerdy dignity, getting into emotional tiffs with the lead actors in his latest experimental play, or kitted up in a fencing costume doing back flips across a crowded gymnasium, with the crowd going so wild you'd think a cheerleader's top just flew open.

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself" - Jacques-Yves Costeau. This quote, handwritten in a book Fisher is reading, leads him to its author, Miss Cross, the beautiful, intelligent first grade teacher, floating through life in a cloud of sadness on account of the recent death of her husband. Olivia Williams pins down a perfect combination of natural beauty, dignity, open mindedness and a genuine interest in Fisher, plus some wry amusement at his various oddities and enterprises. It would have been an added bonus if she'd troubled herself with a bra on a few occasions, but other than this minor misdemeanour, she is the perfect foil for the wackiness of Max Fisher, and the world weary resignation of the third participant in the ill fated love triangle - Mr Blume.

Bill Murray swills whisky and murders scores of cigarettes with detached dark humour for our pleasure yet again. What's not to love? His portrayal is full of subtle deadpan humour, and you can tell he's having a great old time with the character: bitter, dry, washed out Blume, a millionaire steel tycoon, with the requisite big house, catty disinterested wife and spoilt brat sons. Blume, as a self made man, appreciates Fisher's determination and enterprising spirit, befriends him and financially backs Max's outlandishly overblown ploy to win Miss Cross's heart - the building of a ridiculously big aquarium (smack in the middle of the school's sports field). The unlikely trio from all walks of life form a friendship, which is shaken, destroyed and rebuilt intermittently by the increasingly out of control lovestruck schemes of the boy/man Fisher and man/boy Blume.

It does take about half an hour to really kick off, but as soon as it does, you’ll be continually pissing yourself laughing. The film is packed to the gills with eccentric characters, subplots and misadventures. It would be easy for the casual observer to dismiss Rushmore as being a randomly thrown together mish-mash of ill formed ideas. But Wes Anderson’s attention to detail is evident in the film’s flawless timing and thoughtful filming. The framing of the shots is fantastic, with great use of symmetry, colour and placing, and some excellent underwater and through-aquarium shots which leaves Romeo and Juliet for dead, even though Schwartzman is clearly no Leonardo DiCaprio. Anderson’s attention to detail in the presentation of the film leaves no doubt that as co-writer (with Owen Wilson), the randomness of characters and occasions was no accident. Anderson has a taste for the bizarre (as per the later Royal Tenenbaums), which is refreshing in comparison to the standard Hollywood fare of churned out factory line formula boy-meets-girl bullshit.

Rushmore is no Matrix Revolutions - it’s all about the storyline and characters, not seat-soiling visual effects. On account of this, you can’t really expect too much, but Rushmore surprises with pretty decent visuals. The start of the film is a bit speckly due to film artefacts, but this doesn’t last too long. The only other problem is aliasing, evident in several shots. Rushmore is presented in an anamorphically enhanced widescreen aspect of 2.35:1, and apart from those couple of minor faults, on the whole the movie is clear and bright, and the colours come out well.

Content-wise, Rushmore is great - a funky soundtrack of ‘60s/’70s offbeat music (think Reservoir Dogs), which is used well in some montage sequences, breaking up the dialogue and keeping the movie interesting. Unfortunately, the music is a little bit too loud – the volume had to be turned up pretty high to hear the dialogue, which necessitated frequent lurches for the remote when a song started, to avoid getting blasted, both sonically and by my testy neighbours, who get pretty pissed when I crank the music up. Rushmore is presented with three surround-encoded Dolby Digital audio tracks, the prime listening language being English. The surround activity is fairly limited, but hey, it isn’t littered with earth shattering kabooms, although a deep roll of thunder mid-film is suitably impressive, and the dialogue comes through nice and clear.

None! For shame, this is such an interesting film, some commentary from Wes Anderson would have been useful to explain some of its eccentricities, and the cast were clearly having such a good time, it would have been great to hear their take on it.

Returning to my initial comparison, Ferris Bueller is a safe marketing combination of a likeable average kid, with some alternative quirky characteristics. Max Fisher IS alternative - a wacky, intense boy/man of convictions, multiple interests and academic failures. And Rushmore is also left of centre, a random concoction of fantastic oddball characters and portrayals, including Mason Gamble’s delightful Dirk Calloway (and look out for the gorgeous Connie Nelson, of Gladiator fame, playing Dirk's “MILF� mum). You may sit at the end of the film wondering what the hell the point was, but in a ‘gotta watch this again!’ kind of way, as opposed to a ‘huh?’ kind of way. Intriguing, rewarding and lots of fun.