Movie Review: Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Review

Liberal Arts was yet another film that I wished to see when finding out about its release in the UK in October. Unfortunately it was only shown in select cinema's across the country, but luckily I finally managed to view it. Although it took me a little while to get over some minor gripes, this film was in fact extremely deep and the spectacle of the narrative was on a much larger scale than I had originally thought and was thoroughly enjoyable.

The story begins with Jesse (Josh Radnor), an admissions officer at a university in New York travelling back to his old Liberal Arts college in Ohio to see off one of his favourite lecturers who has begun his retirement. 

The first half of the film seemed to veer towards a simple love story between Jesse and Sophomore student  Ziggy (Elizabeth Olsen). Although wonderfully paced and humanely approached, with simplistic views of a connection between one another through a shared adoration, it was not something I was too keen on, hoping that the film would not become in essence a romantic comedy simply masked behind the world of academia. 

Thankfully this was not the case. As the film progressed, Jesse's interactions with other characters such as Nat (Zac Efron) and Peter (Richard Jenkins) posed an altogether different approach. One which looked at different interpretations of the meaning of life. Multiple layers of moral storytelling were put on the forefront  of the film but did not all feel forced upon. 

The acting was outstanding. All the cast behaved extremely naturally and even when there were instances of fairly serious drama it was not created in an unbelievably melodramatic manner. 

Being such an avid fan of How I Met Your Mother it was a little hard to distinguish Jesse's character apart from Ted Mosby, purely because both are portrayed as fairly pretentious intellectuals with a penchant for literature and the romantics. But with the morals and life lessons enveloping in Jesse, his character became more grounded and subtle and was still a great performance by Radnor.   

Elizabeth Olsen's portrayal of Ziggy was excellent too. She provided a interesting insight into the mind of a university student, always seeing the brighter side of things for the future. She was essentially a polar opposite to Jesse, who was far more cynical and nostalgic of the past. Their chemistry together worked really well because of this as it brought about tension through debate.

Although they did not have a lot of screen time, Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney (Prof. Fairfields) efforts were substantial in consolidating some of the more hardened life lessons. They were great as they  unconsciously, through their own nostalgia and growing cynicism, gave away these teachings to Jesse.

Even the really small players in this production such as John Magaro's Dean and Efron's Nat were great. It was surprising to see Efron playing a role vastly different from the usual typecast character he is known for. His portrayal of a zany hippie was rather funny when Jesse had these rare encounters with him. Whereas in contrast, the meetings with Dean were far more serious yet equally brilliant in building up the larger scope of the story.

What I found best about the use of three university students, was that even though Ziggy, Dean and Nat were physically in the same place, mentally and emotionally they were all in different phases, with contrasting outlooks on what the future held for them. 

Overall Liberal Arts was a fantastic film to watch. The pacing was consistently even throughout the film, and although it was simply shot, there were some great camera techniques and a variance of colour within it to emit the tone of individual scenes.

Some may find that the academic backdrop a bit of a turn off, and it did sometimes seem as if it was trying too hard to be smart. But once the layers are slowly unravelled, a fairly simple tale emerges questioning what do we do in order to move forward and do something great with our lives?              

As a senior university student, with that question becoming ever more prevalent in my mind, Liberal Arts spoke to me very clearly. If you are at the same stage in your life and you do decide to watch this, you have made a very good choice. 

8.8/10