Review of Cedar Rapids (2011) by Shiira — 30 Mar 2011

Judging by the insurance salesman's reaction to his roommate, racial diversity must not be one of Brown Valley's strong suits. Intruder is the salesman's first instinct. Via cell phone, he tells his lover Macy(Sigourney Weaver), "There's an Afro-American man standing in my room.

" A black insurance salesman, imagine that. Tim Lippe(Ed Helms) is certainly not in Wisconsin anymore. Sent as a replacement for a dead colleague to the annual Two Diamonds Convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in short order, the country mouse boards his first airplane, unknowingly gets propositioned by a hooker, and meets Ronald Wilkes(Isiah Whitlock Jr.

), the aforementioned Afro-American who inspires fear and trepidation in the provincial conventioneer. Slow to make eye contact, Ronald's friendly comportment soon dispels the negative media images of African-Americans that may have collected in Tim's mind over his lifetime which would make the country bumpkin feel ill at ease without any provocation.

Taking no offense to Tim's perceivable discomfort with the rooming arrangements, Ronald establishes common ground with the ignorant, but innocent naif, by reminding him that they're members of the same profession, showing him his billboard advertisement on the computer in a voice that would make Bryant Gumbel proud.

Sounding more like Wayne Brady than Flava Flav, Tim settles down, realizing for the first time that not all black men are gangstas. Later in the film, similar to Brady's famous turn as a murderous pimp on Comedy Central's "Chappelle Show", Ronald puts on a little minstrel act when he emulates Omar from HBO's "The Wire" in order to rescue his white friend from further injury in a party brawl.

Employing a "blacker" voice, Ronald says menacingly, "I always keep one in the chamber," just like how Brady broke away from his white-friendly speaking delivery with gusto, delving into ghetto-speak with a vengeance, popping off such memorable bon mots as, "Riverside, mothaf*ckers!" and, "Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a b*tch?" During their getaway, Tim's previously misguided preconceptions about black people turns up when he comments that Ronald was talking like a "gangsta person".

By watching Ronald play a character, Tim(and the moviegoer) gains some valuable insight to the social pressure that black people face from their brethren to be more "ethnic", or risk ostracization if they're deemed "too white" and educated for comfort.

This masquerade of "keeping it real" works because those Anglo-American partygoers are confronted by(and believe in) the media's image of the black person, and not Ronald himself, who is as suburban as the next guy.

It's a real possibility that he hangs around exclusively with a white crowd. Also in the fleeing car, along for the ride with this merry band of bacchanal agents(including a very funny John C. Reilly) is Joan Ostowski-Fox(Anne Heche), a married woman with two children, whom Tim has a brief fling with.

Joan's ability to compartmentalize the ribald times she has in Iowa from her boring domesticated life back home recalls Alex(Vera Farmiga), the frequent flier with baggage who seduces the light traveler Ryan Bingham(George Clooney) in Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air".

Ironically, Tim, despite being hopelessly naive and unworldly, practically a virgin when it comes to flying, is able to walk away from his one-night stand with the seasoned adulteress, whereas Ryan, the cynical and jaded world traveler, who logs more miles than can be counted, meets his match and is never the same again.