CEDAR RAPIDS 
Starring:
Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kurtwood Smith, Stephen Root, Alia Shawkat and Sigourney Weaver
Director:
Miguel Arteta
Running Time:
87 mins
Out to buy on Blu-Ray/DVD 19/09/11
"Selling insurance is a business, it's not a God damn Boy Scout troop."
For Tim Lippe (Helms) selling insurance to the local community was his calling. When Tim is asked to represent Brownstar Insurance at the conference in Cedar Rapids, he comes under great pressure to bring home the coveted “Two Diamond” award for the fourth year running. A little naive and very idealistic, Tim quickly becomes overwhelmed by the whole conference experience until he makes some new friends in Ronald Wilkes (Whitlock Jr.), Dean Ziegler (Reilly) and Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Heche).
Moving from TV to film is not always a route paved with gold but for Ed Helms his career is certainly on the up and up but will ‘Cedar Rapids’ give him a hangover?
Making his name on the US version of ‘The Office’ and as a report on ‘The Daily Show’, Ed Helms became an international movie star when he appeared the 2009 hit comedy ‘The Hangover’. With his career on the up and up, a leading role was the next logical step and as the insurance agent with a heart, Helms gets his chance and, for the most part he takes it. Following the example of his ‘Office’ co-star Steve Carrell, Helms moves away from the characters he has portrayed before to create a naïve, idealistic but loveable character that may, just may, make you think that insurance agents might not be all that bad. Mixing outrageous comedy and the feel good factor, ‘Cedar Rapids’ gives Ed Helms the chance to create a character that should be appealing and easy to get behind. For the most part he succeeds, with a fish out of water style with a hint of childish idiot mixed in for good measure. Tim Lippe is a man who has never left his hometown and knows everyone in the small community but letting someone this naïve into a biggest city, with all its temptations, could be and is a recipe for disaster. This, of course, is a life lesson for Tim and reveals to him how the real world works but does this make for a great comedy. Yes and no.
Ed Helms’ portrayal of Tim is a bit of a mixed bag. While the character, as a whole, is likeable, he does get a little annoying during various moments within the film, making you wonder why Ronald, Dean and Joan like him so much. It is the supporting characters that make the film however. Anne Heche returns to a major role as the sexy Joan ‘O-Fox’. This is a woman who you would by insurance from. Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s Ronald Wilkes is a man that screams integrity but is not ashamed to have some fun. It is John C. Reilly’s Dean Ziegler, or Dean-Z as he likes to be known, who steals the show. An extremely talented comedic actor, Reilly again shows his wild side as the agent who questions authority and sees the world as a big playground. With good performances from Alia Shawkat as the local prostitute Bree, Kurtwood Smith as the head of the Insurance guild Orin Helgesson and Sigourney Weaver as Tim girlfriend, this a good cast that needed to be a little better served in some places.
‘Cedar Rapids’ is fun but it still feels like a missed opportunity. With a quality cast let down by a script that tries to make insurance agents likeable characters, the film looks like a fantastic, all covering policy but when you read the small print, you realise that it is not going to pay out everything it promised.
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2011
