Cedar Rapids is the story of insurance salesman Tim Lippe (Helms; The Hangover) who must travel for the first time in his life to go to an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids and insure that the company he works for wins an award for the third year in a row. Upon arriving he is introduced to a variety of different personalities that throw him off his plan.

From the start Cedar Rapids is an unconventional movie.  It’s aiming for a limbo spot between comedy and drama.  One of the hardest targets to hit.  And unfortunately it misses, big time.  It’s really hard to explain even why but I guess that’s why you’re reading this.

Let’s start out with the good.  This film has a tremendous cast.  They’re all all stars.  They’re also all extremely believable as insurance salesmen (and women) at a convention in Iowa.  Not that I’ve ever been to an insurance convention in Iowa, or Iowa, or any insurance convention at all, but this is how I imagine the people at it would be like, and also how I imagine it’d look like.  Director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) nails the look and feel of a small midwestern convention like this.  But continuing my original thought, the acting is wonderful.  The characters are pretty realistic, with Helms’ being the exception.  There’s the woman who has a family back home that she just wants to forget about for a weekend (Heche), the small business owner who is taking this seriously (Whitlock Jr.), and the crass guy who’s here for a party (Reilly).

Of the entire cast I’d say Heche is the standout performer here.  She’s just great and perhaps has the most material to work with.  Her character is really fleshed out and ultimately understandable and just really well portrayed.  But if you’re a fan of The Wire you’ll recognize Whitlock Jr. who played Clay Davis in a totally different role and get a laugh out of the frequent Wire references his character makes.

Now that I listed some great stuff, I’ll get down to the real problem.  The movie can’t find it’s footing between comedy and drama.  It tries in moments to be outrageous comedy but then winds up in emotional drama territory.  It’s not playing both at the same time and it’s not balancing either very well.  Besides this I felt that honestly, it just got boring after a while.   I found that it lost my attention.

It does have good characterization and a lot of heart but it’s poor tone and ultimate boringness make me not recommend it overall.  However if you’re looking for a quasi decent drama maybe check it out.