'Liberal Arts' review: Another midlife crisis follows 'manic pixie ...

What hath Zach Braff wrought? It seems as if, after the success of the erstwhile "Scrubs" star's 2004 film "Garden State," sitcom actors have been given relatively free rein to indulge their "but what I really want to do is direct" dreams. The latest beneficiary of this harmless but less-than-edifying trend is Josh Radnor, who apparently is the guy on TV's "How I Met Your Mother" who's not Neil Patrick Harris. Or Jason Segel. Or Alyson Hannigan.

For his second stab at triple-threat-dom, following 2010's "Happythankyoumoreplease," Radnor has written, directed and starred in "Liberal Arts." He's Jesse, a 35-year-old admissions counselor in New York who returns to his bucolic alma mater in Ohio for the retirement party of his favorite professor (Richard Jenkins). There, he meets the luminous Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a 19-year-old sophomore, and their intellectual, epistolary friendship threatens to become something more, which makes Jesse feel even more awkward than he usually does.

This is yet another version of the "manic pixie" scenario, in which an unconventional, smart, pretty, young female is the (generally platonic) avenue to enlightenment for a disenchanted older male. Instead of buying a Corvette during their midlife crises, men these days just spend a few days pouring their hearts out to Zooey Deschanel in a coffee shop. More convincing are the performances from Jenkins and Allison Janney, as another of Jesse's old profs. Both these pros bring more depth to their supporting characters than either of the promising, but, alas, young, leads do to theirs.

?(97 min., PG-13, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B?

-- Marc Mohan

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2012/09/liberal_arts_review_another_mi.html

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