Liberal Arts

I liked this warm hearted and intelligent comedy, written and directed by Josh Radnor, a lot more than his first film "Happythankyoumoreplease'.

Radnor also stars in the movie as Jesse Fisher, a 35 year old well read nice guy working as an admissions interviewer at a New York City college. He receives a call from his favorite former college professor, portrayed by the skilled veteran actor Richard Jenkins. Jenkins asks him if he can come to Ohio to attend his retirement party at his university, where he's stepping down after 37 years of teaching.

Radnor accepts and while there meets Zibby, played by the superbly talented Elizabeth Olsen. She's 19 years old and a student there, as well as the daughter of friends of Jenkins. They're attracted to each other but Radnor hesitates at starting a relationship with her due to the age difference.

Subsequently, what happens between them takes some unexpected twists and turns. I'll leave that to the viewer to see what happens.

There are some wonderful supporting performances as well. Allison Janney is a hoot as a jaded imperious former English Romantics professor of Radnor's. Zac Efron, in a small but important role, plays a Zen-like philosopher who proffers up some interesting advice. Plus, Elizabeth Reaser adds well to the mix as a bookstore employee who may be a potential love interest for Radnor.

All in all, not everything works in the film, sometimes going off the rails, but overall I enjoyed this quirky, intelligent comedy whose genre seems to be getting rarer and rarer in today's films.