Weaver Alum

A Cedar Rapids Movie Review

From his brilliant turn as a correspondent on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” Ed Helms knows how to make audiences laugh. As Andy Bernard, “The Office’s” earnest a capella singer/Cornell Alum, who is, self-acknowledged, the worst salesman at Dunder Mifflin. Andy’s comic victimization at the hands of Angela in Season Five further endeared him to fans – and to new-ish receptionist Erin (the vivacious Ellie Kemper), even though in this season, the series’ seventh, she is dating officious Gabe (Zach Woods).

Helms was introduced to film fans in the rauchy hit “The Hangover” as the cuckolded dentist who wakes up missing teeth and married to Heather Graham’s happy hooker/single mom Jade.

In the new Fox Searchlight theatrical release “Cedar Rapids” (which debuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival), Helms holds his own opposite film veterans Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Stephen Root, Kurtwood Smith, and John C. Reilly. Helms is Tim Lippe, a sheltered insurance agent to whom a trip to a convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa indicates the big time.

Helms does pomposity without too much obnoxiousness well, and definitely plays that roll well. With Tim in “Cedar Rapids,” he is a wholly credible wide-eyed innocent, who is so impressed with the two-star (at least seemingly to the audience) hotel, replete with indoor pool that his aw-shucks, gee-whiz character never seems disingenuous. Tim, it’s made clear at the start of the movie, was not the company’s first choice to attend the prestigious conference. Instead, it’s un-credited Thomas Lennon’s (“Reno 911″) snarky top-agent Roger Lemke who’s headed – again – to the convention, but when Lemke auto-erotic asphyxiates himself, Tim gets bumped up to the show by their moralistic pushy boss Bill Krogstad (Root).

Tim lives in his childhood home (his parents are both dead) and has embarked on a relationship with his sixth-grade teacher, Macy (Weaver, who is nothing short of extraordinary). While he repeatedly touts their situation as “engaged to be engaged,” she clearly thinks of it as something more casual, despite her obvious fondness for him.  So Tim takes his first plane ride to gloomy-weathered Cedar Rapids, Iowa (actually Ann Arbor, Michigan doubles here), experiences his first hotel and finds himself rooming with two convention regulars – Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s straight-laced Ronald Wilkes and John C. Reilly’s outrageous Dean Zeigler. Anne Heche’s Joan Ostrowski-Fox is a friendly, easy-going agent whose attitude is definitely “what happens in Cedar Rapids stays in Cedar Rapids.” Kurtwood Smith (“That 70s Show”) is the Christian “high-expectations” president of the convention.

Director Miguel Arteta pulls no punches. He doesn’t offer up a group of conventionally stereotypical boorish agents who suddenly let loose. Instead, he presents finely drawn characters with believable situations and quirks. It does become the circus that surrounds the astonished Tim, but he takes the proverbial bull-by-the-horns and manages to both upturn everything and somehow fix it too. This is a film that has poignant moments, genuine pathos, but also plenty of humor. It is, in a word, hilarious.

About the Author

Along with enjoying movies, Sammi loves her flower gardens. Most of her perennial flowers are shipped from Garden Harvest Suppply. She also uses their plant supports for her taller plants.

Branson School (Marin) alum Kareem Weaver ’90 teaches in inner city Oakland

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