Josh Radnor’s character embarks on a relationship with the 19-years-younger Zibby, played by Elizabeth Olsen.

Kids: When you become famous actors that star in CBS sitcoms, never, ever make movies about your experiences at a tiny liberal arts college. They will be boring. Trust me.

Enter Ted Mosby — sorry, I mean Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), who’s the writing-directing-starring triple threat in Liberal Arts, a feat he also performed in his film happythankyoumoreplease in 2010. Radnor’s character, Jesse Fisher, is a slightly unhappy middle-aged New York City man who’s dissatisfied with his life and still hasn’t found the girl of his dreams.

Sound familiar? Hear the HIMYM theme song playing in the background?

That’s until Fisher’s second-favorite professor, Peter Hoberg (Richard Jenkins, The Cabin in the Woods), at an unnamed liberal arts college in Ohio (filmed at Radnor’s alma mater, Kenyon College), asks Fisher to come back to school for the professor’s retirement party.

Then a thread of events featuring great supporting performances is sewn together — Fisher meets 19-year-old Zibby, played by a very believable and vulnerable Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), with whom he eventually starts a relationship. He meets Nat, a wild and free college guy, in a successful cameo from Zac Efron (The Lucky One) and he meets Dean, a book-loving nerd just like Fisher was in college (John Magaro, Down the Shore). Allison Janney (Struck by Lightning) has a fiery appearance as Fisher’s favorite British literature professor, Judith Fairfield.

Liberal Arts has several good themes echoed throughout — the idea of growing older juxtaposed with experiencing the rites of youth all over again. City life versus rural life. The love for knowledge that transcends generations.

The problem is that I almost fell asleep watching it.

The writing is lackluster. The conversations are filled with long pauses following diatribes about being young and the meaning of life and books. It comes off as an attempt to be deep, but disconnects audiences in the process.

Connecting with the protagonist is also difficult. Josh Radnor’s narrow range of emotion in the film varies between “less happy” and “a little sad”, leaving out more complicated emotions such as disappointment, nostalgia and infatuation — after all, the guy’s having a relationship with someone 16 years younger. He could have given a little more than his subpar Ted Mosby persona. The standout performances are worthless without a commitment from Radnor on-screen.

The result is a detached film trying to be honest, but coming off as superficial and indie.

If I had really wanted to watch Ted Mosby get with a 19-year-old at his alma mater, I would have just turned on an episode of How I Met Your Mother. At least Neil Patrick Harris would have been there too.