You ever see those old movies or TV shows where the Dad, usually some Hugh Beaumont-type guy, always has to attend one of those boring conventions for whatever product he was selling? "Sorry honey, but I've got that water filter conference in Rolling Valley this weekend"! Now imagine that you're a guy so sheltered and boring that one of these conferences is the highlight of your life. Better yet, everybody attending feels the same way. You might expect some wild, raucous hi-jinks to pop off. In Cedar Rapids, the latest comedy from Miguel Arteta(The Good Girl), what you get isn't so much a raunchy comedic romp, but more of a mildly entertaining side trip.
Straight arrow insurance salesman Tim Lippe is the epitome of "sheltered". Imagine the naivete of the 40 Year Old Virgin, only this guy has gotten laid or two a time in his life. In fact, he's currently laying the wood to his former 7th grade teacher(Sigourney Weaver), and he's so happy to be having sex with anybody that he's all but in love with her. She's just lookin' for a good time, while Tim is completely oblivious to the potential awkwardness of their situation. After the firm's top salesman dies unexpectledly, Tim is shuffled off to Cedar Rapids to be the presenter at an annual conference. By comparison to Tim's hometown of Brown Valley, Wisconsin, Cedar Rapids might as well be Las Vegas.
It becomes quickly apparent that everybody working in the insurance racket feels the same way, as the conference is used as an excuse to drink and whore around like drunken sailors. Tim reluctantly becomes friends with his roommates: the well-mannered and reserved Ronald(Isiah Whitlock) and loud mouthed party animal Dean Ziegler(John C. Reilly). What quickly follows is a sort of coming-of-adult age story as Tim's friends help broaden his horizons, both to the world at large and the politics of the insurance biz. In desperate need of more youthful female interaction, Tim parties and does drugs with a bored prostitute(the always excellent Alia Shawkat), and has an affair with a married woman(Anne Heche). A successful weekend to be had by all!
Produced by Alexander Payne, there are echoes of the more thoughtful portions of his biggest hit to date, the wine-tasting comedy Sideways. Most of these scenes involve Tim discussing his reasons(somewhat misguided) for believing so strongly in the heroic nature of the insurance salesman. The major difference between these two movies is that Sideways' humor bubbles up naturally from all involved, whereas here the only source is an outlandish John C. Reilly. His role is pretty stereotypical. He's loud, brash, and goes out of his way to stir the pot by saying the wrong thing, but he's fun! Reilly can play this type of role in his sleep, and for long stretches he's the only thing keeping this story from becoming a snooze. The rest of the cast is solid, especially Anne Heche who strikes an impressive picture with crimson hair, but the script doesn't give them much in the way of jokes to work with. Helms in particular is playing a variation on a character we've seen him play both in The Hangover and The Office. It works, but just barely.
Arteta, who scored last year with Youth in Revolt(hey it was my fave 2010 film for like 5 minutes!), gets as much as he can out of Phil Johnston's imbalanced script, which manages to be glacially paced while simultaneously trying to fit in way too many ideas. I can only imagine how much better this would be if Payne had written it, because there are the makings of a an amazing dark comedy if someone could properly tap into it.
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