Cedar Rapids

I saw this film at an art house theater so it will not have a wide release, but instead will come to an HBO or Showtime near you very soon. John C. Reilly  continues to impress me with his range. He plays a loveable flawed goofball, but with a layered complexity that gives the audience a glimpse of the pain behind his crude facade.
I first noticed his ability as an actor in "Chicago," and since then, no matter what the role, he has done a great job of character interpretation.
The lead actor here is a face I've seen somewhere before (the kind of face we like, but really don't take much notice of) but can't place. His unassuming name, Ed Helms, does not ring with movie lead heft, yet his performance as a naive rube going to the city for a convention for the first time, is entirely believable and engaging, and not at all a caricature, as it could have been in less capable hands.
Anne Heche is well cast as the small town insurance agent in real life/brittle party girl of "what happens in Cedar Rapids, stays in Cedar Rapids" lore. Confronted with the unaffected innocence of Helms' character, her hard shell begins to crack.
But the most interesting thing about this movie is its setting at a mid-level insurance convention which recognition most participants see as the pinnacle of their success. Everything about the settings-- (the faintly seedy yet still respectable mid-level hotel with its out-of-date furniture and bland expanses of carpet), the costumes (the lower middle class take on "business attire"), the color palate (beige, taupe, touches of orange, brown and more brown)--adds to the sense of futility the film seems to have about these people's lives.
This is a comedy, but a comedy that lets the audience see the tragedy at its core.
The plot is completely pedestrian and we see its resolution coming right away, and, as a comedy is wont to deliver, there is a happy ending.  All of these unhappy people come together and make something out of their friendship, something that even improves their industry, even if on a very small, very personal, level. And isn't that the meaning we all search for in our lives? Something on which to hang a little hope?