Cedar Rapids (Fox Searchlight)
Who Knew Iowa Is So Wild
Ed Helms stars in a comedy about a nave insurance salesman who goes to a convention in the wild city of Cedar Rapids. Who knew The film is titled appropriately Cedar Rapids and it is a warm hearted comedy that gets bogged down with too much crude humor and too little content.
Tim Lippe (Helms) is quite content with his life in the small town where he grew up. He has a good job as an insurance salesman and he has a hopt and heavy romance going with one of his former teachers, Macy Vanderhei (Sigourney Weaver). He has always stayed close to home and has no desire to roam.
Then one day through a series of events his boss Bill Krogstad (Stephen Root) tells him he is going to have to represent the company at an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids. Tim doesnt want to go but he has not choice, so he kisses Macy good-bye and embarks on his first plane ride ever.
Once at the hotel in Cedar Rapids he meets some of his fellow insurance agents. They include Ron (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), Dean (John C Reilly) and Joan (Anne Heche). Through these associations he begins to drink too much and eventually use drugs too much. He even falls for a prostitute named Bree (Ali Shawkat).
The whole movie is about the transformation of Tim Lippe as he goes from nave to world weary. He learns a lot in the big city and his small town will never look exactly the same to him again.
Helms has a touch of Jimmy Stewart in him as he plays Lippe, but Jimmy never acted while naked, or used the words that come out of Tims mouth. Still Helms role is choir boyish compared with Reillys. His role as Dean makes him one of the crudest people in the film. He has an off color joke for any occasion and a sexy comeback to any remark.
Heche doesnt escape either. Joan, who she plays, is a woman looking for freedom. She is married with kids but she forgets all that as much as possible when she is at the convention. She has a good heart but her morals are a little hard to define.
Kurtwood Smith plays Orin Helgesson, the head man at the convention and one of the most sanctimonious people you would ever want to meet. This character is so morally upright and up tight you know he will fall and fail before the end of the film.
The characters in this film are interesting but the movie itself is just a little too predictable. Plus the use of crude humor is just exhausting. By the time you have heard or seen the last smutty joke or action you are ready to leave. Who knew that Cedar Rapids could be so wild and exhausting!
I scored Cedar Rapids an un-conventional 5 out of 10.
