QUIRKY `RUSHMORE' PEAKS VIA CHARACTERS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Remember that smart but misguided, attractively energetic but abnormally obsessive geek in school?

You can bet film critics do, and that's why you're going to have a hard time finding negative reviews of ``Rushmore.'' Undeniably charming and ultra-quirky in a generally pleasing way, this latest study of oddballs-on-the-outs from director Wes Anderson (``Bottle Rocket'') was built to be overpraised.

But smart, distinctive character comedy being the rare thing that it is these days, don't let the critical hype keep you away.

Our wayward overachiever here is Max Fischer (newcomer Jason Schwartzman), a 10th-grader at the prestigious Rushmore Academy who is the master of all extracurricular activities - Astronomy Club, fencing team, the Max Fischer Players (for whom he writes gritty social dramas) - and flunking out of the curricular ones.

While barreling along on an academic probation, Max makes two key adult acquaintances: wealthy school benefactor Mr. Blume (Bill Murray, dry and sweet like an impossibly conflicted wine) and fetching British first-grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Blume sees in the enterprising Max the kind of surrogate son he wishes his own pampered jock boys could be. Max falls hard for the widowed Cross and seeks Blume's aid in his hopeless quest to romance the older woman.

Can this course of action lead to anything but expulsion? Well, yes, especially after Max arranges to have a state-of-the-art aquarium built for the fish-loving Cross on the site of the campus baseball field.

But hard as being forced out of Rushmore is - in a touching expression of the film's subtle yet sharp class criticism, Max doesn't want his classmates to know that he's the son of a barber - it's nothing compared to the blow when Blume falls in love with Miss Cross.

Schwartzman is a scream playing a guy you have to laugh at because he's so self-serious it's impossible to laugh with him. He's a brat and an integral accomplice to his own, immense humiliation, and the film's suspense builds from our increasing, tenuous hope that he'll actually get a clue about himself before it's too late.

You're going to see a lot of ``Murray does his best work in years''-type quotes associated with this film, even though he was actually funnier in last spring's less-reputable ``Wild Things.'' This is one of those amusingly tentative performances of his that gives the impression something understated but remarkable is going on. Really, though, he's just playing a rich guy who's lucky enough to have a particularly enriching midlife crisis.

Which, if you think about it, is not something you see in movies every day, but is very much in keeping with the cockeyed individualism that is ``Rushmore's'' great, ingratiating strength.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Rushmore'' (R; language, sex, mild violence).

The stars: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Wes Anderson. Written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. Produced by Barry Mendel and Paul Schiff. Released by Touchstone Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 33 minutes.

Playing: AMC Century 14, Century City.

Our rating: Three stars.