Review of Liberal Arts (2012) by Jerry W — 03 Jan 2017

I'm on my lunch break at my desk, so I might as well write a review, due to preponderance of boredom, to flex out the mechanical keyboard muscles or something. I must admit, I watched this late last night to wind down the weekend, and going in, I thought that this would be HIMYM with Elizabeth Olson, but I was in for a surprise.

I get the premise of the story and some of the intended realism. But I personally just did not enjoy this film. Only the lines from the penpal montages were witty in my opinion... Something about Radnor's personality taken almost exactly from his persona on HIMYM just doesn't quite work when translated onto the silver screen.

.. or is it perhaps a different set of writers? In any case, I just didn't really find the humor in this film funny if I'm being brutally honest. It ranged from lilting prose (perhaps 15% of the time) to utterly cringe-worthy interactions between the pair.

I kept thinking several times throughout, are they REALLY doing/saying that?? The dialogue mostly feels forced / not smooth at all, which was not what I expected from Radnor. Like, I get that the realism is meant to portray the disappointment you find out in real life about people.

.. But honestly, if I wanted that, I'd not spend two hours on a film... I'd just live real life (and have more fun/humor at that). While a depressing film can have its value, this one in particular does not have the artistic/storytelling worth to watch.

Very mixed feelings on this one. I wanted to like it, but I simply (like what Radnor tells Olsen in the bedroom)... couldn't.