Cedar Rapids is a middling comedy that raises some interesting, if well worn, questions but stumbles a bit with the answering of them.

Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is a small town insurance salesman who has never left or done anything to really branch out. The only real excitement in his life is banging a teacher (Sigourney Weaver) he had in middle school and has deluded himself into thinking that they are in a more meaningful relationship than they are. Tim’s life is as stalled as can be when he gets called up to the big show: a insurance convention in Cedar Rapids where the pressure is on to win a fourth consecutive Two Diamond Award from Oren Helgesson (Kurtwood Smith) a fundamentalist christian who puts just as much importance on godliness as on sales prowess. Tim is paired with Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr), a career insurance man who basically lives for the work but is a friendly sort and warned against having anything to do with Dean Ziegler (John C Reilly), a salesman known for poaching clients. In order to accommodate all the attendees,  Tim and Ronald have to accept a third roommate who of course ends up being Dean. The three end up going wild during the weekend and, with the addition of Joan (Anne Heche) Tim steps out of his tiny comfort zone and experiences a whole lot of living and also learns how far he will go to keep his job and his integrity.

The material here is pretty well worn and the arc Tim is on throughout the movie is one we have seen many times. Where the movie comes into its own is some of the particulars and its refusal to pass conventional moral judgment on what the characters do. Some of that last part feels questionable but on the whole the film manages to make its point without getting sappy or overly sentimental. The moments that start to hew a bit close to that tend to do so with a decent sense of humor.

The movie is not uproariously funny though. When the characters get into debauchery it is funny but also feels a bit retread from similar comedies that have done similar things for years and years. The moments meant to shock with the hilarity of it all tend to underwhelm under the burden of familiarity. There are a lot of laughs to be had but not a lot of really big ones. I say that but the dude sitting behind me was belly laughing at even the most incidental jokes and I started wondering if we were watching different movies.

The performances are all very good as the assembled cast is top notch. Even minor characters are played by people you’ve seen and they all acquit themselves well. Ed Helms in particular is likable as ever as a character who doesn’t stray too far from Andy from the Office but different enough that it doesn’t feel like a retread. Tim is naive and innocent but he is not a man-child and he is not incompetent. Tim feels real and he feels sad. Watching him come out of his shell is fun and you can’t help but care about him just a little. John C Reilly could have gone really over the top with Dean Zeigler and while the performance is in no way understated, the character never becomes a caricature. He is a guy that likes to party and go over the top but Reilly  delivers a definite sense of sadness and earnestness under the surface. That is an interesting throughline in the film, the buried sadness that characters are trying to party out at the convention. Anne Heche has it as she chooses Tim to be the guy she sleeps with at the convention but still taking time to talk to her husband on the phone about the kids’ appointments for the coming week. Her character struggles with morality below the surface even while partying happily above.

Conclusion [7.5 out of 10]

Cedar Rapids is worth seeing and has its share of laughs but is a bit too uneven and a bit too light on the jokes too recommend strongly. Check it out on dvd or at a cheap show and you won’t be disappointed. Pay full price and you may not be so lucky.