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Mise en scene

I really enjoyed the way this movie utilized it's framing of the characters to further their situations, relationships, and simply adding the the comedic effect.

Many times the Max and Herman are shot off centered. Which further shows their unbalanced lives. What is interesting, however, is that the shots that include both of them are very well balanced, despite their size and age differences. Some of them use a symmetrical parrallelism (yes, that's right out of my film book) to increase the comedic effect (for example, near the end when they are walking down the walkway in Herman's pipe factory, both wearing hard hats and both with a pipe in hand).

I think this balanced parallelism is useful becuase it furthers the idea that these are two unbalanced individuals (hence they are fequently off-center when shot individually) who, through their quirky behavior balance each other out.

In the bedroom scene Rosemary says that Max and Herman are made for each other becuase they are both children--it kind of sums up this entire piece of the story. Max is working so hard at being a responsible grown up, that he just comes off as an overly juvenile adolescent. Herman, on the other hand, just wants to avoid/escape the responsibility of his life (i.e. wife and kids) and so, in combination with his somewhat strange personaility, acts like a child to do this (think of him hiding behind a tree spying on Rosemary, and then scurrying off after their conversation).

But, get these two odd people together, and really together so that they're working side by side (like in the first, but more particularly the third, act) instead of in competition (as they did in the second act) and they are able to help each other find peace in the world.

Story

I thought it was an interesting choice to start the movie with a dream sequence. It certainly shows Max's aspirations, and in the very next scene we are shown his comparitively dreary reality. But, I felt like it also made an alread bizarre story, even more out of touch with reality. Folloiwng the opening chapel scene when it shows Max being in, and fouding, all the school clubs, I couldn't tell if that was real, or yet another dream sequnce because it was just so weird, especially with him constantly in that blazer (which is has it's own interesting symbolisms).

Several other times throughout the movie I also wondered whether it was going to turn out to be a dream sequence or not. Again, this show is a little strange.

After I think about it I can see why they decided to start with Max's fantasies of himself (juxteposes his desire to be smart, which is what Rushmore is really about, with his reality of average intelligence, but a life filled with enthusiasm and other obvious talents), but ultimately, I felt like it hurt the story.

Filmmaker said:

"The script is meandering, and too self-aware of its attempts to be witty and stylistically unique."

I'm wondering if you can give some examples of these complaints?