says that he misses her and credits her for helping him to grow. He meets and starts dating Ana, a bookseller his own age with a similar love for books. After Jesse helps avert Dean's suicide by overdose, he advises the young man to stop hiding from life within books. Jesse goes to see Zibby and apologizes to her again. She says that she had hoped to take a shortcut to adulthood through a relationship with Jesse, and that she understands that what he did was the right thing. Jesse goes back home and renews his correspondence with Zibby. The film ends with Zibby lying down reading Songs of Innocence and of Experience which she received via courier from Jesse, and Ana lying on Jesse's chest, them happily talking about growing old. Cast Josh Radnor as Jesse Fisher Elizabeth Olsen as Elizabeth "Zibby" Richard Jenkins as Peter Hoberg, a retiring professor Allison Janney as Judith Fairfield, a romantics professor John Magaro as Dean, a depressed student Zac Efron as Nat, an eccentric student Elizabeth Reaser as Ana, a bookseller Kate Burton as Susan, Zibby's mother Robert Desiderio as David, Zibby's father Gregg Edelman as Robert Michael Weston as Miles, Jesse's friend (in deleted scenes) Filming The majority of scenes were filmed at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Kenyon is the real life alma mater of both Radnor and co-star Allison Janney. Reception Liberal Arts received generally positive reviews and has a rating of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 113 reviews with an average score of 6.56 out of 10. The consensus states: "While it's hard not to wish it had a little more bite, Liberal Arts ultimately succeeds as a good-natured -- and surprisingly clever -- look at the addictive pull of nostalgia for our youth." The film also has a score of 55 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 24 reviews, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 and a half out of 4 stars and stated in his review: "Liberal Arts is an almost unreasonable pleasure about a jaded New Yorker who returns to his alma mater in Ohio and finds that his heart would like to stay there. It's the kind of film that appeals powerfully to me; to others, maybe not so much. There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking