Cedar Rapids (Review)

The career of Ed Helms has witnessed quite the ascension over the past couple of years. After a four-year stint as a correspondent on The Daily Show, Helms has gone on to become a series regular on The Office, and in 2009 he starred in Todd Phillips’ monster hit The Hangover. With all this, it was only logical that one of these days Helms would get a comedy vehicle all his own, and Miguel Arteta’s Cedar Rapids provides him such an opportunity. Here is a film with a fantastic cast all around, including the always reliable John C. Reilly, but make no mistake: Cedar Rapids is wholly reliant on the performance of Helms. Fortunately, he’s more than willing to carry the load.

Helms plays Tim Lippe, a puppy dog of an insurance agent who’s lived in Wisconsin his entire life. His entire existence has been spent in a state of perpetual naiveté, and so intent is he on clinging to his childhood that he spends his spare time sleeping with his ex-middle school teacher played by Sigourney Weaver. He’s relentlessly positive, and anything that threatens to tarnish his perfect little world is met with an uncomfortable grimace.

Tim is eventually called upon to take a trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to represent his insurance company in a convention. In his mind, Cedar Rapids is an absolute metropolis, as his Wisconsin town is one of those country villages where everyone knows everyone else. In contrast, Cedar Rapids is a city of sin, as each character seems to be more deviant than the next. One of the first people Tim meets is Dean Ziegler, played by John C. Reilly. He’s a hard-drinking slob of a man that remains relatively charming, and it doesn’t take long for Tim to be drawn in to his web of immorality. But is Dean really all that messed up?

Cedar Rapids boils down to the simple story of a seemingly innocent man fighting his way through a weekend of temptation. More importantly, it’s hilarious. Over the course of his time in Cedar Rapids, Tim is faced with most every form of less-than-chaste behavior, from drugs to drinks to fornicating with strangers. On top of this, it’s revealed that the very conference itself may not adhere to the moral standards it’s so fond of preaching. Tim is a symbol of purity who gets in over his head early and often.

Tim’s romantic interest for the weekend is played by Anne Heche, and while she’s everything he seems to need in a woman there are too many complications keeping them apart. For starters, she’s married with children, and on top of that Tim is reluctant to give himself over to a woman who is so imperfect. She’s far from innocent, and this simultaneously attracts and repels him.

All this works because Cedar Rapids is funny, first and foremost. It was written by Phil Johnston, who is able to accurately capture the absurdity of Midwestern obsessions while still remaining sympathetic toward them. No one is mocked, there are no cartoonish accents, but the film still feels right in its place. To some people, the town of Cedar Rapids undoubtedly would seem as big as cities get. To some people, going to the insurance convention and fighting for that useless award is the most important thing they’ve ever done. Cedar Rapids gets this right without becoming too absurd.

Miguel Arteta has built up quite the little career for himself the last few years. He’s dabbled in television direction, helming episodes of Freaks and Geeks, The Office and Six Feet Under among others. He’s directed acclaimed films such as The Good Girl, last year’s little-seen Youth in Revolt, and now he’s made Cedar Rapids. These are all modest little comedy films, and Cedar Rapids is likely the broadest of his work thus far, but there’s no reason to think he doesn’t have a lot of great work ahead of him.

In The Hangover, Ed Helms played a character who journeyed to Las Vegas with the intention of getting into shenanigans, but he ends up getting more than he bargained for. Now, in Cedar Rapids, the business trip is set up in a similar fashion, and Iowa becomes a sort of Las Vegas-lite. Nevertheless, I may have enjoyed Cedar Rapids a bit more than The Hangover, if only because I seemed to care more about Tim Lippe than I did about any of the characters in Phillips’ film. It may not be as relentlessly chaotic, but it’s equally funny, and manages to be even more rewarding.

Rating:  (out of 4)