We left the kid with his grandparents and went out for a grown up dinner and a primetime movie. Impressive, right? More impressive still is that I spent 10 bucks on a movie that made me not care that I'd just spent 10 bucks on it. Okay, part of my joy was based on the fact that I was out on a Saturday night. But mostly it was because we saw a really nice movie.
Cedar Rapids stars Ed Helms as Tim Lippe, a naive insurance agent who, after the untimely demise of his company's star agent, is sent to represent the company at the regional conference, held every year in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tim's never been to such a big city, and everything is a marvel to him. His boss tasks Tim with winning a coveted award, and orders him to steer clear of notorious client poacher, Dean Ziegler. Both of these things cause Tim a great deal of stress, as he discovers that the award is not as straight forward as he believed, and Dean is not the antichrist he was represented as either. Cedar Rapids becomes a place of transformation for Tim, as he explores his relationship with his new friends, a lover back home, a comely married colleague at the conference, a young hooker based at the hotel, and his entire future.
Ed Helms does a good job of making absurdly naive Tim sympathetic without seeming pathetic. The other supporting characters are all fitting to their roles, including Anne Heche (in one of her best parts--I kid not), Sigourney Weaver, Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat, and HBO The Wire's Isaiah Whitlock. but the real star of this movie is John C. Reilly as Dean Ziegler. He is as foul mouthed as anyone you'll see in the movies these days, as well as laugh out loud funny. What takes the occasional verbal raunchiness out of the realm of obnoxious is the genuine heart behind everything that occurs. The movie is absurd and funny and sweet and grown up and satisfying. Cedar Rapids is a movie I recommend without reservation (but note that it's not a film for children).
