Terrific comic performances in a movie that will never be known for its subtlety.
Can innocent charm and raunchy humor co-exist simultaneously on screen? That's
Cedar Rapids, and it works. You may be laughing against your better
judgment, but you'll laugh often during the merciless stream of verbal and
visual porn that peppers the audience.
Brown Valley,
Wisconsin is the town; Brown Star Insurance is the company; Tim Lippe (Ed Helms)
is the innocent; and Cedar Rapids is the big city hosting the annual insurance
convention that will reward one company for "good Christian behavior." When
Brown Star's convention rep dies in a bathroom sex game, the CEO reaches down to
tap Tim, a junior guy who has never before dared dream of such an honor. He's
going to Cedar Rapids.
At the
moment, Tim is having an affair with his former grade school teacher, Macy
(Sigourney Weaver). Aside from his somewhat adult enjoyment of sleeping with the
woman who taught him about the rain forest when he was ten, Tim is still a wide
eyed boy who slips now and then and calls her Mrs. Vanderhei. He is also an
idealist who believes in the power of the insurance industry to do good for
humanity. Insurance agents, you see, can help people when disaster strikes, and
he will tend his flock. "I'll take care of you," he assures a young couple.
After one
last dalliance with Macy, our earnest idealist readies himself for his first
airplane ride. Sitting by the emergency door, he volunteers to help the flight
attendant in the event of catastrophe, "I'll be there," he says, and, awestruck,
looks out the window at the miracle of flight. As our ingenuous hero checks in
at the hotel, we meet the people who will alternately bedevil and befriend him.
Ron (Isiah Whitlock Jr) is the dignified agency owner who's seen it all before
and steps up as Tim's protector. Deanzie (John C. Reilly) is a foul mouthed
reprobate, incapable of making it through a sentence without at least one
allusion so crude it brings a small involuntary eruption of laughter from a
disbelieving audience. Joan (Anne Heche) is another conventioneer far away from
home and family - "Whatever I do or say stays in Cedar Rapids."
We will watch
our new friends navigate a scavenger hunt for the grand prize of a $45 gift card
to the Kiku Restaurant in the West View Mall. We will watch Tim engulfed at
various times by drugs, alcohol, and women (Alia Shawkat as Bree). And we will
have the great pleasure of watching his new best friends rescue him whenever he
slips. Isiah Whitlock Jr., John C. Reilly, and Anne Heche give terrific comic
performances in a movie that will never be known for subtlety. Ed Helms' makes
Tim a real winner as he loses and then reclaims his idealism. When he is
rewarded on the flight home with not one but two bags of honey roasted peanuts,
we rejoice in his victory.
Copyright (c) Illusion