Film Reviews

Cedar Rapids

• Rating:
• Director: Miguel Arteta
• Starring: Anne Heche
• Details: US/86mins 15A

An offbeat comedy that has been inexplicably compared to The Hangover by some critics, this is an initially grating but ultimately amusing hour and a half. Actually, John C Reilly doesn't turn up until about 25 minutes in, so subtract there or there abouts. Not that the film's star, Ed Helms isn't funny, he just makes Rain Main look like Vince Vaughn's character in Swingers.
Helms is small town insurance salesman Tim Lippe. A sweet, good natured man he has nonetheless led a sheltered existence for most of his life with his only crazy indulgence an affair with Sigourney Weaver's former teacher. When the company hotshot dies in a kinky "accident" Tim is tasked with replacing him and making a presentation at a big insurance convention that could make or break his company. But he ends up getting distracted by John C Reilly's party animal - a fellow insurance flogger who's there just to have a good time.
An out and out comedy Cedar Rapids may be, helmer Arteta injects his usual quirkiness to proceedings to make it all feel a little left of centre. The tone is deadpan when the script may have been complimented more by the embracing of the gags - there are still some funny moments. Reilly has played this type of boisterous man child countless times before, which is probably why he's gotten really good at it. As soon as he turns up the films comes to life, and he's responsible for the majority of the laugh out loud moments. I now know what a "jerk circle" means...
Helms is an endearing, but sometimes annoyingly naive lead. It's pretty hard to buy someone being that socially awkward, especially when he's hand to fend for himself since he was 16. He's probably more oblivious than introverted, but either way the gag wears off pretty soon into the running time. He's well backed up by Heche and Whitlock, who all give strong performances and steal their fair share of the laughs from a showboating but still comical Reilly.
Worth a look. Just don't believe the hyperbolic poster quotes.

Review by Mike Sheridan