"Rushmore" stars Jason Schwartzman as "Max Fisher." He's the key to this movie. He did an outstanding job, but he wasn't as likable as he was supposed to be. To me, he came off like a whiny schmuck who was just annoying. I don't blame Schwartzman though, I blame the writers of the script. The kid was too pathetic to like. Also in the movie is Bill Murray. He was excellent. Much of the praise about the movie has to do with his performance, and it's all well-deserved. There's a small role played by Connie Nielson as the mother of one of Max's friends. You may remember her as the sexy bad girl who Keanu Reeves lusted after in "Devil's Advocate."
Now don't get me wrong, I did like "Rushmore," but I've been reading too much positive stuff about the movie for it not to have been great. I guess I just didn't see in it what so many others claimed to have seen. Believe me, I wanted to like this movie more than I did. I recently wrote another review where I was disappointed in a movie that critics loved (that movie being "The General"), so I hope I'm not slipping.
Walking outta
the movie theater, I heard two women talking about it. One was talking about
how intelligent it was, while the other (like me) didn't see what all the
fuss was about. The one who liked the movie kept saying how brilliant the
dialogue was in a pseudo-film geek kinda way. I couldn't understand what
she was talking about. I mean, the dialogue was pretty good, but not stellar,
and FAR from realistic. I wanted to ask her if she knew who David Mamet
was, but I didn't. I woulda LOVED to have heard her response, though.