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| CEDAR
RAPIDS |
Movie
review by Neil Sadler
Starring: Ed Helms, John C Reilly, Anne Heche, Sigourney Weaver,
Rob Corddry, Stephen Root, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Kurtwood Smith, Alia
Shawkat
Director: Miguel Arteta
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details
The key to understanding
what type of film CEDAR RAPIDS is, is in the name of one of the
producers, one Alexander Payne, the director of ELECTION and
SIDEWAYS. CEDAR RAPIDS owes more to the bittersweet comedies of
Alexander Payne than say the comedies of Will Ferrell or Judd Apatow.
CEDAR RAPIDS tells the story of Tim Lippe (Ed
Helms) a naive insurance salesman from a small town who is chosen to
attend an important conference in said Cedar Rapids. Never having
left his home town he is soon drawn into the debauchery and
deviousness of the conference circuit.
Ed Helms is a good innocent. His role here
differs little from his role in THE HANGOVER but he is an endearing
character on which to hang this tale. This is a much more subtle
character and a much more subtle film - even if sometimes it does
veer into the cruder areas of Ferrell and Goldberg. There is a lot
of fun to be had in the fish out of water
Surrounding the Lippe character are a bunch of
supporting characters mainly to do with the conference.
John C. Reilly plays a less exaggerated leering buffoon than
usual, Anne Heche plays a flirty delegate and is surprisingly
endearing, but her character and story don't really develop. The
Wire's Isiah Whitlock Jr, plays a moral compass that tries to keep
Lippe on the straight and narrow. And finally, although in a very
peripheral role, we have Sigourney Weaver in a cameo role of sorts,
as Lippe's mismatched lover back home. It is a strange part and
Weaver is effortlessly charismatic.
They are a reasonably endearing bunch although
for the most part these are shades of characters we have seen
before. If anything the film seems like an overlong episode of a TV
sitcom - but one where we have missed out some of the character
development. It feels like there is more to explore with all the
characters but sadly we never get the chance.
Cheekily offensive - it is played with just
enough heart that you can forgive its rough edges but it plays a
fairly predictable course.
True - there are some laugh out loud bits, some
heart-warming bits and some slight moments of tension but rather
like Lippe's hometown of brown valley itself, it all seems a bit
familiar and safe to want to spend too long there and it is unlikely
to be a place you want to visit more than once.
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