Cedar Rapids

Expected to kill 90 minutes and probably not even finish watching 'Cedar Rapids', BUT Ed Helms led the highly capable ensemble cast of John Reilly, Signory Weaver, Isiah Whitlock, and Anne Heche down the rabbit hole to his world of dweeb awkwardness, and the result is a satisfyingly sweet little guy wins comedy. Well written and paced.

Recommended viewing when you think there is no comedy you haven't seen before that would be a deemed worthy of your time. Earns my Two Diamond Award for being such a nice surprise.

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"What happens in Cedar Rapids stays in Cedar Rapids," says Joan, a "one of the guys" kinda woman played by Anne Heche who views her yearly trip to an insurance conference in Cedar Rapids as momentary liberation from her life's irrevocable commitments. For those of us who've tried to spend as little time in Iowa as possible, that little mantra's something of a joke, but escapism means something different to everyone. "Cedar Rapids" puts much in perspective this way by showcasing adults as the children they often are.

Ed Helms gets his first starring role as Tim Lippe, an insurance agent from Brown Valley, Wisc. who's never set foot out of his hometown and is even sleeping with his seventh grade teacher (Sigourney Weaver) to whom he's "pre-engaged." When the insurance company's golden boy dies of auto-erotic asphyxia (which Tim regularly refers to as "an accident"), Tim must represent the company at the annual ASMI conference in Cedar Rapids where he must win the coveted Two-Diamond award for excellence or it will cost the company dearly.

Helms nails the fish-out-of-water character using much of the same naiveté that made him a beloved addition to "The Office." Although in many instances his super-small-town mentality serves as a comedic ploy, it informs the way we watch the rest of the film, namely how he interacts with his new group of friends, characters that rather accurately represent the array of business types.

Tim first meets Ronald (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), the amicable by-the-books guy with who tells bland jokes and means well. Then John C. Reilly storms onto the scene as Dean Ziegler a.k.a "The Deanzy," the straight-shooting schmoozer with absolutely no filter and as such, the source of much of the laughs so long as you find humor in creative vulgarity. Last would of course be Joan, who jokes around about seducing Tim but behaves otherwise. Heche seems to have found the path many actresses looking to rebound have taken: playing a damaged middle-aged woman trying to feel things out.

Essentially these characters are grown-up children in much the same way that the "The Office" brings playground dynamics to the adult world. Team-building activities and getting drunk are just the beginning for what these characters do and consequently how they behave. For Tim, it's a long-delayed loss of innocence. He learns that even parts of his ho-hum life can have a two-faced nature; those people he believes to be bad end up good and vice versa.

Director Miguel Arteta ("Youth in Revolt") seems to show an adeptness at this kind of comedy, drawing performances from the cast that provide nuanced characterization and believability. A comedy about Midwestern insurance agents doesn't work if the people don't seem average, yet at the same time, the characters are far from dull.

"Cedar Rapids" mostly struggles as most indies do in finding a balance between comedy and poignancy. The over-the-top comedic elements seem to push away from the dramatic, which is the film's greater strength. There's plenty of humor to be had in the nature of the story to the point that a scene with Tim going over the edge and smoking crack with a prostitute doesn't seem essential to say the least. Tim's reactions to moral conundrums seem a bit exaggerated as well in terms of the writing.

The ending lacks a bit of zing, but the intentions of Phil Johnston's script are pure and true. His focus stays on a well-cast protagonist and Tim's attitudes help create the perspective shift that allows us to enter the characters' shoes. The results are light-hearted and not preachy in the least.

~Steven C

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I have to admit that when I saw the poster for this, I thought it looked lame. I then checked out IMDb and saw it had 7.2. I still wasn't convinced. I then only watched it because it was the only film on at the time I wanted to go out. And I'm glad I did. This film is gem - a mix between an indie film, dark comedy and farce. It kind of reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite but not as quirky. This film is funny and really enjoyable on so many levels. The cast is perfect - all performing above and beyond. John C Reilly is a legend in this film and just about steals the show from Ed Helms. I suggest you go watch this film expecting very little and you'll come away feeling like you've just been given a free gift, unlike most films which rob you!

This film got reasonable reviews so I decided to make the effort to check it out, not least of which because of the cast that features quite a few names and faces that I know from either being instantly recognizable (Weaver, Reilly, Heche) or from their work on other projects that I like a great deal (The Office, Arrested Development, The Wire etc). The plot here is fairly straightforward, a small-town insurance salesman has to replace a colleague at a regional conference in Cedar Rapids and win the prestigious award that his company has won many years running. It is a simple idea and much of the comedy will come from the sweetly naïve Tim having his eyes opened to a wider world while also trying to keep his principles in place. Like I say, a basic plot and it very much depends on what the script does within that frame.

There are plenty of ideas here and plenty of set-pieces but the problem is that the film doesn't really deliver any of them really well. On one hand we have aspects of it that are the rather awkward naïve comedy that Helms does with his character in The Office. This manifests itself in his relationship with an older woman (she is having fun, he is deeply in love) or his inability to know a prostitute when he sees one. On the other hand we have the more exaggerated adventures he gets drawn into, these involving sex, drink and drugs. Neither of these two aspects is particularly strong either individually or together and, at best, they produce amusing moments and the occasionally laugh but nothing particularly engaging nor particularly funny. Instead what we get is plenty going on in terms of noise and activity and perhaps this is enough to distract and, for me, mostly it was. The actual plot is quite obvious and heads to a sort of solid ending but I was quite surprised by how lackluster much of it was.

The cast are perhaps part of me being disappointed in the outcome but all of them are capable of more. I liked Helms and he played the lead role well, just the material didn't play to his strengths as well as it suggested – it is like it put him between the awkwardness of The Office and the crude slapstick of The Hangover and he didn't sit comfortably between them. Reilly appears to offer the more boisterous side of things but again the film doesn't follow through on what he brings. Heche is a nice touch in casting and works well but Whitlock is wasted; his only contribution of note is to make a great little in-joke where he does an impression of The Wire's Omar (a TV show he was in) – it is funny but it is ruined within seconds since the film feels the need to explain the reference to the viewer. Various other faces do solid work without ever having too much to do, so while some are good, the overall feel is that a great cast don't have much to do. This feeling covers Smith, Shawat Corddry, Root and others.

In the end Cedar Rapids is an OK film that never gets close to delivering on anything it puts on the table. It has an odd mix of styles but it doesn't do any of them really well, which leaves a film loaded with recognizable faces and names, none of whom really excel because the script doesn't either. A solid so-so but no more than that.

Deciding to watch this was totally based on the IMDb reviews so I wasn't sure what to expect. Happily after watching this twice in a few days I can say it really hit the spot.

Not being a huge fan of any of the leads and not having seen anything of Ed Helms prior I was not expecting anything brilliant here, but I really enjoyed this both times watching. I would regard this as a feel good comedy rather than a straight out comedy. Some of the humour would not be appreciated by everyone and will probably be regarded as quite silly, but I think it suited the movie.

John C. Reilly's movies can be a bit hit and miss, as his humour tends toward toilet humour in many cases and if you are not into that it can be a bit of a turn off. While some of the humour is a bit lowbrow, if you can get over that you will enjoy this movie.

I gave it a 7 out of 10 and will be watching it again.