My expectation for this film was a romantic comedy, and it delivered on the romance, but especially on the comedy. The tone throughout was very witty, and there was a romance with New York, with music, and almost everyone. This turned out to be the second coming of age tale I happened to catch at the 2012 DIFF, fortunately this one was much more light-hearted than the first. Liberal Arts delves into the life of Jesse Fisher (Josh Radnor), who has just broken up with his girlfriend and is invited back to his old alma mater by a retiring favored professor. This gives Jesse time away from his current existence and in the process he gains some new perspective on life in general. Returning to the university has Jesse overjoyed because some of his happiest memories were during his time there and during this time he meets Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), Nat (Zac Efron) and Dean (John Magaro). I found the dynamic between Jesse and Zibby to be fun and reenergizing, because although she is considerably younger than Jesse, she has some simple truths that she imparts on him that he needs, specifically that some things are done just because they make you happy. Zibby is like most college students, not nearly as smart as she thinks, but she brings out some things in Jesse that he had lost or forgotten. The warmth between Jesse and Zibby was only balanced out by the bleakness of aging from the perspective of Jesse's favorite instructor Judith Fairfield (Allison Janney), who had at least one more profound lesson to impart, and the professor who invited him back, Peter Hoberg (Richard Jenkins). Nat was Yoda, and that's as much as I'll say about that. Jesse really did not have a growth spurt until after he upped his acquaintance with Dean. Dean was the antithesis of Zibby, and was very convincingly in a struggle that to the outside it would seem there should be no struggle at all. The time with Jesse is what I believe made Jesse understand what it is to truly be adult about things. This film like most that are character driven was nice, funny and insightful, but for me it did not require the big screen. Yes there was an opening chase scene, but this could have been a movie of the week on the small screen. I could and possibly would watch it again, and did enjoy it so I give it an amber light.
Review of Liberal Arts
