Ed Helms finally gets a leading role to call his own, and a supporting player swipes the movie out from under him.
What do you expect when you share the screen with John C. Reilly?
“Cedar Rapids” casts Helms as a naive insurance salesman who gets a crash course in Life 101 when he attends a business convention. But fellow conventioneer Dean (Reilly) is the life of this party – and reason enough to give this romp across Middle America a try.
Helms, best known for his work on “The Office” and “The Hangover,” plays a Wisconsin insurance agent named Tim Lippe who’s never left the comfort of his bucolic home town. Now, thanks the untimely death of a colleague (Thomas Lennon), he’s been asked to represent his company at the annual insurance convention in big ol’ Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
It’s not New York City, but to a small town recluse like Tim it might as well be.
Everything seems larger than life once he arrives at the convention, including a piece of work named Dean (Reilly) who Tim is told to avoid at all costs. Tim tries to find solace with the reserved Ronald (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) and a flirty saleswoman (Anne Heche), but Dean forces his way into all of their lives. The quartet end up drinking, swapping war stories and wondering who will win the Two Diamonds, the coveted prize to be doled out during the convention.
But Tim doesn’t expect the kind of dirty politics behind the award, nor does he anticipate how Heche’s character gets under his skin.
“Cedar Rapids” feels like a lost chance at a comedy that clicks on a tapestry of levels. It examines the darkness lurking under flyover country, from the machinations of the head insurance guru (Kurtwood Smith) to Tim’s conniving boss (Stephen Root). The film eventually disposes of such trenchant themes for lowbrow humor, and while the laughs never stop flowing it’s hard not to think what might have been.
The film pokes holes in the hypocrisy of God-fearing salesmen doing unsavory things to get ahead, but there’s always Tim and his compatriots to remind us there’s plenty of goodness to be found in Red State America. Helms captures the kind of employee who loves his job, respects his bosses and takes his responsibilities seriously. Yet for all his small-minded ways he’s not the object of ridicule in the end, and Helms makes sure Tim’s inner strength never stays too far out of the frame.
Helms may feed the fish out of water gags, but it’s Dean who makes the most impact. Reilly wrestles scene after scene from his co-stars, but his character isn’t nearly as sleazy as he’d like us to believe.
And who knew Heche could be so sweet, sexy and vulnerable all at once? It’s a shame her story arc isn’t teased out more, since her attraction to Tim reveals a chasm in her life that might have made the story even richer.
“Cedar Rapids” proves a supporting player can anchor a movie as well as any A-lister, but it always helps to have someone like Reilly around just in case.
(Photo: Isiah Whitlock, Jr., John C. Reilly, Ed Helms and Anne Heche (center) star in the insurance industry comedy “Cedar Rapids.” Fox Searchlight Pictures)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds interesting. I like Helms, Reilly, and Root. Never been a Heche fan, so it will be interesting to see her being someone vulnerable. I always feel she comes across as smug. As for Reilly being a scene-stealer, I remember when I saw Stepbrothers, no matter how hard Ferrell mugged for the camera, Reilly was the interesting one to watch.
I saw the preview for this when I was at the theater to see True Grit. What a piece of garbage.. it was sophomoric and filthy. And that was the preview.
If that is what is considered a funny movie.. I want no part of it.