In many ways, Miguel Arteta's "Cedar Rapids" (the follow-up to his moderately successful adaptation "Youth in Revolt") bears a striking resemblance to its metropolitan namesake. Featuring several big-name comedy actors (and starring current hot commodity Ed Helms) indicating the potential for a mainstream "big city" hit, in its cinematography and willingness to shift tone and play it blue when necessary, "Cedar Rapids" very much embraces its indie origins. In the first ten minutes, we're treated to awkward sex between Tim Lippe (Helms) and his favorite grade school teacher (Sigourney Weaver) and an auto-erotic asphyxiation death suffered by Lippe's idol, Roger Lemke (Thomas Lennon, channeling Lt. Dangle at his awkward best during his brief time on-screen). The "tragedy," as Lippe believes it to be, forces Lippe to attend an annual insurance conference in Lemke's stead held every year in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Leaving home for the first time ever, Lippe is thrust headlong into into the dangerous world of Midwestern insurance sales politics, and before the film ends Helms' misguided hero has found himself dabbling in adultery, illegal drug use, prostitution solicitation and some impromptu insurance-inspired karaoke.
All of this is handled to perfection by Helms, who has had more than his fair share of experience playing the naive straight man over the past several years on both TV (The Office's Andy Bernard) and the silver screen (Stu in both Hangover movies). In fact, none of the performances here are anything we haven't seen before. Reilly plays the same over-the-top, obnoxious blowhard we've seen in Talladega Nights and Stepbrothers. Stephen Root and Kurtwood Smith each portray fat cats of the industry willing to bend the rules to make a quick buck, placing them squarely in the camp of conventional comedy foils. Indeed, much of the criticism for "Cedar Falls" seems to be with its predictability. The story arc follows a pattern you can anticipate reasonably well in the first several minutes, with the naive hero finally spreading his wings and understanding what we wants out of life once he broadens his horizons. Think "Mr. Deeds" on a much smaller scale without the obligatory Steve Buscemi cameo.
Underneath this layer of conventionality, however, lies a chemistry between the four main characters (in addition to Lippe and Ziegler, the gang includes Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Ronald Wilkes and Anne Heche as Joan Ostrowski-Fox) that makes the predictable story worth watching. Helms captures just the right amount of believability out of the hopelessly-lost small town boy to anchor the film, and we can't help but cheer for him, even as he's bemoaning the loss of a life we know he's not happy living. Whitlock, in particular, shines as a jovial roommate and fellow salesman to Lippe, who is horrified originally to be sharing a hotel room with an "Afro-American" gentleman. The rapport that builds between the four stars can be seen most acutely in the shorts that accompany the final credits. If anything, Cedar Rapids is guilty of establishing relationships it doesn't ultimately explore. At the end of the film, we get the sense that these characters love and care about each other, but we're deprived of seeing how those relationships turn out down the road.
Maybe that's the point, though. "Cedar Rapids" is a film that explores familiar territory, giving us a main character hopelessly inept who finds himself on a voyage beyond the confines of his ordinary life. We see an evolution in Helms' Lippe, but one that Arteta makes sure in the final scene not to let reach too far. The film, thus, preserves the down-home simplicity we like to believe still exists in middle America. Bucking no trends and forging no paths that haven't been worn several times before, it does make for a nice hour and a half distraction showcasing the talent of several of today's established and up-and-coming comedic actors. Like a nice trip to a sleepy metropolis in the Midwest, populated by chain restaurants and all the excitement of a hotel swimming pool, we take comfort from knowing what to expect in "Cedar Rapids" and having it delivered in a nice, simple package. ("Hey, Timbo, did you just make a dick joke?")
Verdict: 4/5 stars
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