The review:
It’s a gentle comedy, Cedar Rapids is, and Miguel Arteta does his best to make an amusing and sweet movie.* Ed Helms perfectly embodies the somewhat emotionally stunted, completely tight-laced, Midwestern,** small-town insurance agent suddenly tapped to travel to Cedar Rapids for the big insurance conference. John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Isiah Whitlock Jr.*** make great mentors, and the rest of the cast is stuffed with a laundry list of, “Hey, it was that guy**** who was in that thing.”
The verdict: Good
Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home
Consider also watching:
- Big Night
- Lars and the Real Girl
- Midnight in Paris
- Once
- Stardust
- Win Win
- Amelie
Further sentences:
*It’s a Sunday Afternoon Movie—one that provides you with one last gasp of trouble-free weekend before the windup to the work week begins.
**In bearing, he very much reminded me of a co-worker.
***Who charmed me by describing himself as being married to his insurance business, but also that he takes part in community theater and enjoys the HBO program, The Wire.
****There are nearly no women in this movie.
Questions:
- What’s your favorite gentle comedy that has more than one woman in it?
- Which character had the best lines?
- Of the “guys who were in that thing,” which is your favorite character actor?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s character Ronald Wilkes references the character Omar from the TV show The Wire. He played the character State Sen. R. Clayton ‘Clay’ Davis on the TV series. According to Whitlock, the Wire references were in the script before he was cast, and they decided to keep them in place as an in-joke for fans of both Whitlock and his former show.
