Cedar Rapids is a coming of age story, but this time it's about an adult. Tim Lippe (Ed Helms, The Office and The Hangover) is a dedicated but "small town naivete" insurance salesman who is forced to go to the "Big City" of Cedar Rapids, Iowa to make a presentation to help capture an award that his firm considers the holy grail of insurance recognition. So begins an odyssey of such hilarity that you just can't help but enjoy this new comedy from director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) who makes the most of both the talented cast and witty script.
Although the suspense, if you will, of the film surrounds the coveted Two Diamond award, it matters not to the overall arc of this film. Conference attendees Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly, Step Brothers), Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr., HBO's The Wire), and Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche, Donnie Brasco) along with Lippe create all the comedy and drama you might expect as seasoned conference attendees meet up with the novice Lippe. Cedar Rapids is really one long laugh and you are rarely left wanting or waiting for the next gag, even the more cliched ones (which also prove surprisingly successful).
Lippe shares a room with Wilkes and when the oft protected Lippe meets Wilkes, who is black, he freezes in the doorway to the hotel room and the gag is comedic genius. Wilkes is the prototypical insurance agent, dedicated, straight laced but able to have a drink and fight the good insurance fight when he needs to. Add to this hotel room, which was over sold for the conference mandating further room sharing, Ziegler, who also fits another insurance salesman stereotype: a shameless, brash, womanizing, partier and you have the makings of some impactful fun, and boy oh boy does this trio deliver the laughs.
Being away from home for the first time, we learn that Lippe was orphaned at a young age and has worked in this insurance office for years. To add to his anxiety, he is forced into representing his firm for this coveted award and the thought of the presentation alone sends him into a near panic attack. His roommates finally convince him to go for a drink, which, shockingly, he has never had, where they meet up with Joan Ostrowski-Fox who is comfortable in a man's world and attractive in her off the rack business suits. After that first evening, the entire conference is filled with wacky behavior, with Ziegler at the center of all of the pratfalls that come from that point forward. John C. Reilly gives delivers the best comedic acting of his career and although a film of this size won't ever get award consideration, without Reilly this film would never have found its creative and comedic pacing.
One of the best scenes in the movie, as Lippe goes on a wild spree, hanging out with a prostitute, smoking crack, and finding himself in the middle of a party so far from his roots that not only does he stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, he thrives as his inhibitions slide away with each hit of the crack pipe. Maybe that doesn't sound funny, but in the hands of director Arteta, it somehow works without offending. Ultimately, Lippe's new friends finally track him down and rescue him just in the nick of time, with Whitlock recreating his character from The Wire in one of the funnier scenes in the movie and definitely one of the best send-ups in recent memory. It works to perfection and it's worth seeing the movie just for that scene alone.
Cedar Rapids has its slow points and there are moments that are wasted, but the laughs that is does deliver and the cast alone are enough to keep you smiling and waiting for the next laugh and just so you know, it will come and more often than you expect. This film is escapism at its best and my only regret is that the running time is only 86 minutes and there wasn't more to enjoy. (Be sure to stay through the credits as the movie and the fun aren't over until the last credit crawls up the screen.)
Rating: THREE BONES
Release Date: February 18th, 2011
Rating: R
Starring: Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Kurtwood Smith, Stephen Root, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Director: Miguel Arteta
Writer: Phil Johnston
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