Miguel Arteta knows comedy. The director of "The Good Girl" and "Youth in Revolt" reliably casts his films with actors who brilliantly deliver in every role big and small.
Ed Helms nails his part as small-town insurance salesman Tim Lippe with just the right dose of internal anguish. Helms zings with intuitive comic timing. Hilarity happens.
Tim has never traveled beyond the borders of Brown Valley, Wisconsin, where he indulges in afternoon assignations with his former seventh-grade school teacher (Sigourney Weaver).
The embarrassing death of his company's star salesman (by autoerotic asphyxiation) requires Tim to fly to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for an annual insurance convention. Entrusted by his boss to secure the esteemed "Two-Diamond Award," Tim is a fish-out-of-water-with-a-mission.
John C. Reilly plays party animal Dean Ziegler, the one hombre Tim is instructed to avoid. Dean winds up in Tim's hotel room alongside straight-shooter Ronald Wilkes (wonderfully played by Isiah Whitlock Jr.).
Throw into the mix Anne Heche as a vixen on the loose and laughs flow like water from a shower-head. Tim Lippe might not be the most worldly guy, but Cedar Rapids brings him up to speed.
Rated R. 86 mins.
