Liberal Arts (film)

Liberal Arts
Poster for Liberal Arts
Directed by	Josh Radnor
Produced by	Brice Dal Farra Claude Dal Farra Jesse Hara Lauren Munsch Josh Radnor
Screenplay by	Josh Radnor
Starring	Josh Radnor Elizabeth Olsen Richard Jenkins Allison Janney John Magaro Elizabeth Reaser
Music by	Ben Toth
Cinematography	Seamus Tierney
Edited by	Michael R. Miller
Production company	Strategic Motion Ventures BCDF Pictures Tom Sawyer Entertainment
Distributed by	IFC Films
Release dates	January 22, 2012 (2012-01-22) (Sundance) September 14, 2012 (2012-09-14) (United States: limited)
Running time	97 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1.1 million[2][3]

Liberal Arts is an American comedy-drama film. The second film directed by, written by, and starring Josh Radnor, it tells the story of 35-year-old Jesse (Radnor) who has a romantic relationship with Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a 19-year-old college student.^[4] The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January 2012.^[5]

Plot

Jesse Fischer (Radnor) is a 35-year-old college admissions officer in New York City who loves literature and language, but is newly single and dissatisfied with his life and career. He believes that the happiest time of his life was the years at his unnamed Ohio liberal arts college, where he could study poetry uninterrupted, surrounded by others like him. Peter Holberg (Jenkins), his father and old English professor, invites Jesse back to the college to attend Peter's retirement ceremony. Jesse meets 19-year-old Zibby (Olsen), a sophomore studying drama and the daughter of Peter's friends.

After the retirement dinner, Jesse stumbles upon a dorm party where he runs into Zibby. They agree to have coffee together the next day. He spends the afternoon with Zibby, and they walk around the campus discussing life, books, and music. He also encounters his old romantics teacher, Judith Fairfield (Janney)—a woman he has long admired—and meets the non-sequitur Nat (Efron) and Dean (Magaro), a brilliant but depressed student who, like Jesse, always carries a book with him.^[6] Before Jesse leaves, Zibby asks to stay in touch; they become pen pals and become closer via handwritten letters.

Zibby invites Jesse back to campus for a romantic encounter. Jesse has concerns about the 16-year age gap but agrees. They are caught by Peter, however, who warns Jesse about not living in the past and growing up. Zibby confesses her feelings to Jesse and asks him to sleep with her; he agrees, but after she admits it would be her first time he declines. He upsets Zibby when he explains why and she asks him to leave. Jesse goes to a bar where he meets Fairfield again. They have a one-night stand, but her bitter, cynical attitude toward life disillusions him. Meanwhile, Zibby goes to a party and kisses a classmate. Jesse leaves without seeing Zibby again, but says goodbye to Peter and they reminisce about their lives and getting older.

Jesse returns to New York and, some months later, writes to Zibby again. He apologises for hurting her, says that he misses her and credits her for helping him to grow. He meets and starts dating Ana (Reaser), a bookseller with a similar love for books (and who, as Jesse notes, is "age-appropriate"). After Jesse helps avert Dean's suicide by overdose, he advises the young man to stop hiding from life within books. Jesse goes to see Zibby and apologizes to her again. She says that she had hoped to take a shortcut to adulthood through a relationship with Jesse, and that she understands that what he did was the right thing. Jesse goes back home and renews his correspondence with Zibby. The film ends with Jesse seemingly happy with the idea of growing old with Ana.

Cast

• Josh Radnor as Jesse Fisher
• Elizabeth Olsen as Elizabeth "Zibby"
• Richard Jenkins as Professor Peter Hoberg
• Allison Janney as Professor Judith Fairfield
• John Magaro as Dean
• Elizabeth Reaser as Ana
• Kate Burton as Susan
• Robert Desiderio as David
• Zac Efron as Nat
• Gregg Edelman as Robert

Filming

The majority of scenes were filmed at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Kenyon is the real life alma mater of both Radnor and co-star Allison Janney.

Reception

Liberal Arts received generally positive reviews and has a rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 104 reviews with an average score of 6.6 out of 10. The consensus states: "While it's hard not to wish it had a little more bite, Liberal Arts ultimately succeeds as a good-natured -- and surprisingly clever -- look at the addictive pull of nostalgia for our youth."^[7] The film also has a score of 55 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 24 reviews, indicating "Mixed or average reviews".^[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 and a half out of 4 stars and stated in his review:

"Liberal Arts is an almost unreasonable pleasure about a jaded New Yorker who returns to his alma mater in Ohio and finds that his heart would like to stay there. It's the kind of film that appeals powerfully to me; to others, maybe not so much.

There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking under autumn leaves, carrying a briefcase containing the works of Shakespeare and Yeats and a portable chess set. I will pass an old tree under which once on a summer night I lay on the grass with a fragrant young woman and we quoted e.e. cummings back and forth. There is a word to explain why this particular film so appealed to me. Reader, that word is "escapism." If you understand why I used the word "reader" in just that way, you are possibly an ideal viewer for this movie."^[9]

References

External links

• Liberal Arts at the Internet Movie Database