Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is a little fish in a little pond. He is an insurance salesman in a small town which he will probably never leave. Finally, he gets his big break and is asked to leave on a very important company trip to an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Once there, he rapidly finds new friends: John C. Reilly, as the bad influence and party boy, Anne Heche as the seductive,live for the moment and let your hair down kind of woman and straitlaced, rule following, Isiah Whitlock, Jr. The four of them bond quickly and form a believable alliance. Helms is naïve and wide-eyed and totally believable in a part that could've been played over the top. In fact, the cast struck a comfortable tone that complemented one another. Of course with such bad influences, Lippe gets himself in to trouble and then out of trouble again with the help of these friends. This was a sweet film with many entertaining and funny moments. My favorite, is when Whitlock launches into his favorite character from Oz the HBO television series about prison life. A very sweet movie.
