‘Liberal Arts’ just makes much ado about lots of nothing

Life after college hasn’t been good to Jesse (How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor), who’s barely making things work in New York where he has a desk job in college admissions. He has so little going on, in fact, that when his college professor (Richard Jenkins) invites him to attend his retirement dinner back at his Kenyon College alma mater, he takes him up on the offer without even having to check his schedule.

While at Kenyon, Jesse meets Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a young theater student who has a deep appreciation for improvisation and classical music.  Impressed by her old-fashioned values (she refers to him as her “gentleman caller”), he’s somewhat smitten despite the years separating them. (Doing the math, Jesse realizes that when he was 19, Zibby was 3.) Before he heads back to NYC, she gives him some music to listen to and asks him to write her using pen, paper and his witty observations.

They correspond regularly, sharing philosophical thoughts with one another, until Zibby invites Jesse back to Kenyon to meet. There’s some awkwardness to their initial attempts to connect in-person and they get into an argument over the artistic merit of teen vampire stories. It’s all a little precious and the fact that the characters’ slow-moving climbs to self-awareness and maturity are littered with literary references and some underdeveloped characters along the way doesn’t help matters.

Radnor, who also wrote and directed the film, has made a little ode to college life and trying to go back home that fits the template of art house fare. Though filled with clever dialogue delivered by talented actors (Allison Janney has a nice turn as a jaded English professor), Liberal Arts just doesn’t have any crossover appeal and ultimately comes off as pretentious and boring.