TotalFilm na verdade listou como um dos seus principais 20 finais de filmes, comentando:
The Ending: His play a triumph, and an imperfect but stable compromise reached with Ms Cross, Max Fischer looks ahead to young adulthood with a new girl on his arm and a new perspective on his own myriad vagaries.
It's been a rocky ride for the young firebrand, but the sense of emotional achievement is palpable.
Goosebump Moment: Right as those "all the world's a stage" curtains swish closed, the chorus lyric to the Faces' Ooh La La kicks in over the top, and Wes Anderson's hitherto-somewhat-obfuscated point suddenly comes into beautifully sharp focus.
If They'd Gone Bleak: Max would've tried to give Ms Cross the reacharound, had his specs slapped off, and left us with the unimaginably sour implication that he'd learned absolutely nothing about the world or his place in it. Gah.
Como seus comentários mostram, o sombrio acabamento teria envolvido Max descendente em sua maneira infantil novamente, fazendo um movimento inadequado e assim mostrando que nada havia mudado no filme. Em vez disso, independentemente de quais são os seus sentimentos verdadeiros , Max se contém e nos é dado um lembrete final de sua antiga vida antes de sua jornada para o "novo".
A revistaRolling Stone concorda, afirmando:
Assim, embora possa haver muitas interpretações, sinto que o final é simplesmente o primeiro instantâneo da vida adulta de Max.To call Rushmore a romantic triangle about clinical depressives doesn't allow for the film's bracing humanism. No tidy happy ending here. Just a cotillion honoring Max's Vietnam play and allowing the major characters to come together, change partners and dance to a Faces song, "Ooh La La," that links youth and experience in a lovely, fleeting moment of reconciliation before the shooting recommences. Anderson closes the curtain on his movie as if he were directing a play by Max Fischer, which, of course, is just what he has done. Bravo.