Film
Cedar Rapids
Published: March 2, 2011
Cedar Rapids
Directed by Miguel Arteta
Opens March 4.
A socially stunted insurance salesman is forced to attend the titular convention, schmooze it up, and vie for a Prestigious Award with the future success of his company in the balance. Ed Helms as Tim Lippe—sort of a fragile innocent, a distorted reflection of Tracy Flick from Election—could have stepped up in gravity from the half-joking, half-serious model of NBC’s The Office (where he has excelled for years as the weaselly “Nard Dog”), but it’s not happening here, and while there are lots of nutty convention hijinks to smile at, ultimately the whole schedule is a disappointment. You can see the rift between playing a scene for laughs and getting serious, and you just wish director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) could have taken a position. John C. Reilly, frequently channeling Micheal Keaton, pumps big energy and life into this enterprise as an earthy conventioneer and he’s helped along with a nicely dialed-down turn by sometimes-crazypants Anne Heche and a sensitive take from The Wire’s Isiah Whitlock Jr. (the “sheeeeeee-it” state senator guy) as you are sucked into a subculture of essentially decent people navigating a banal reality, trying to get a little fun out of life. Stephen Root, from a million different things, is great here, along with that asshole who was the dad on Fox’s That ’70s Show and Alia Shawkat (all-grown-up Maeby Füncke from television’s Arrested Development, and The Runaways, and Whip It, c’mon, girlfriend needs a hit) as Bree, a seasoned local convention pro, who breaks your heart a little bit with her weary freckled face. Enough. Much like the lives of everyone you grow to know in this story, this could have been so much more. Maybe next convention.
> Email Joe MacLeod
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