Sweet “Cedar Rapids”

There’s a type of movie we’re pretty familiar with.  It’s set in a small town and is full of local oddballs who do wacky things but have hearts of gold.  It’s easy for these movies to get condescending and make fun of its characters.  What’s refreshing about Cedar Rapids, the new comedy at The Guild, is that it follows the formula but with affection and respect.

As you can guess from its name Cedar Rapids is set in the the down-to-earth, American-car-driving, nasally-vowelled, sensibly-shod, cholesterol-consuming, beer-drinking, unbelievably-cold-wintered, practical, comfortable, and unpretentious upper Midwest.  Believe me, as one who used to live in Michigan, I know what they’re talking about.  The funniness of its premise is that an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is an exciting jaunt to the big city for attendees from the backwaters of Wisconsin, Nebraska and Minnesota.

As funny as this is at first, the movie makes us realize that small-town values and even the insurance industry are worthy of our admiration, as boring as they might seem.  The plot, what there is, is almost completely unnecessary (a drug party sequence feels like it’s been spliced in from a different movie).  Although I did detect, in these days of right-wing ascendancy, the subversive idea that people shouldn’t be judged by religious criteria.  This movie is humanistic and anti-the-big-guy in the best way.  And a whole lot of laughs at no one’s expense.