Cedar Rapids

I watched this movie on HBO today. Before seeing it in the listings I had never heard of the movie. It was a theatrical release but it was not successful. Still advertised as a quirky comedy about a straight laced Iowa insurance salesman who at a convention in Cedar Rapids meets some folks who lead him astray.

The movie should have found a better audience. I thought that it was very,very good. I laughed out loud several times which is always a pretty good measure for me as I am a tough critic on comedies.

Ed Helms stars as Tim Lippe a solid insurance agency for the Brown Agency. We see him helping customers, giving them a fair deal and notably not overselling overpriced policies. After an office party Tim gets a call in the night telling him that the companies star agent played by Thomas Lennon has died in an auto asphyciation incident. Tim is naive in the extreme. He is having a sexual relationship with a former teacher from grade school. He thinks it is love and does not understand her hints that she is just having fun post divorce.

With the death of his hero Tim is sent to deliver a presentation to a regional convention in hopes of winning the Two Diamonds award. This award is very important to his boss Mr. Krogstad, played by Stephen Root.

At the convention he is approached by a prostitute. He is so naive he thinks she really wants a cigarette and not being a smoker he offers her a butterschotch. At the convention he rooms with an African American agent named Ron Wilkes and John C Reilly's character Dean Ziegler. Wilkes like him is a mild mannered man who " does not like to brag but does a good impression of characters on the HBO Series The Wire." Zeigler on the other hand is a loud, obnoxious man who Tim struggles to like. Over the course of the movie however Tim learns that both these men will be loyal friends.

Tim also meets a female agent named Joan Fox played by Anne Heche. Heche is fantastic in this role. She is likable and vulnerable as she tells Tim that her life is what she wants but maybe not all that she wants. What happens at Cedar Rapids stays at Cedar Rapids. She is taken by Tim's innocence and all in attitude, they partner in a scavenger hunt and when they win go out to dinner with the restearunt gift card they win. After his playmates convince Tim to drink, they end up in the pool and eventually Tim ends up in bed with his new lady friend.

The movie continues with Tim learning how his predecessor kept winning the Two Diamond awards. Tim goes to a party with drugs and alcohol, befriends a prostitute, challenges his boss and makes friends. After telling some highlights of his trip to the sterwardess on the way home she says that he desreves two bags of pretzels. He is naive enough even after his adventures to think this is really neat to get two bags.

This movie is funny, with raunch in places but also sweetness. Some of the vulnerability shown by the characters, especially when the four friends are all in the hotel room recovering from a night of drinking are really quite feeling. This is a very good movie. A movie that manages to be both funny and sweet without being saccharine. Highly recommeded.