Review of Liberal Arts (2012) by Rainer K — 12 Dec 2012
Everything Josh Radnor touches turns into gold.
Although I prefereed his debut feature Happythankyoumoreplease, HIMYM star Josh Radnor gave me exactly what I was looking for.
His Liberal Arts is about books and student life and intellectuality and broken dreams and romantic perceptions of life and age and maturity. This is a lot of stuff to deal with and ninety minutes are a just too short time span to really dig deep enough into these matters, and yes, it gets melodramatic at numerous occasions, but you merely get to see a film, that sports such sincere sweetness and knows about how naive and romantic its subject is. Not to mention the pure quality of the language Radnor puts into the mouths of his characters.
The almost over-the-top literary expressions of Jesse's former Romanticism professor, the beautiful letters Jesse and Zippy write each other and the genuinity of their conversations, when they switch back to College English.
By the way, Jesse is the likable, goofy and sloppy 30-something Josh Radnor plays all the time (think of him as Ted and you pretty much nail it), and who reminds me of myself so often, and Zippy is the 19-year old student who revives his fading life (she's played by the gorgeous Elizabeth Olsen). She's so much more straightforward, determined and confident (it seems so at least) than him, and sometimes I felt, that she's the mature part of the two.
A wonderful film, all in all, one you don't necessary have to admire, or even love, but you feel good about it, much like these vampire novels.
This review of Liberal Arts (2012) was written by Rainer K on 12 Dec 2012.
Liberal Arts has generally received positive reviews.
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