'Cedar Rapids' in Name Only

Today's print column

In just a few weeks, “Cedar Rapids” makes its silver screen debut. But Cedar Rapids isn't invited.

Thanks to movie magic and management malfeasance, “Cedar Rapids,” the movie, was filmed in Ann Arbor, Mich, the city, where it will make its Midwest premiere Jan. 28. It opens in theaters Feb. 11.

“Cedar Rapids” moved to Michigan after we found out in September 2009 that Iowa's very generous tax credit program for filmmakers was being run with all the due diligence of a lemonade stand. Millions of dollars worth of state credits were awarded for expenses unauthorized even under the bold banner of “half-price filmmaking.” Luxury cars. Movie stars. But no receipts.

Gov. Chet Culver, whose now sunset-riding administration had enough misadventures to rival “The Hangover,” swiftly suspended the program once misappropriations hit the fan. So “Cedar Rapids” migrated to a state where tax credits were still available.

It's tough to harbor much hate for Ann Arbor, especially now that its football Wolverines have been declawed. Enjoy the picture, I say.

But movie posters still clearly say “Cedar Rapids.” We may not get a red carpet premiere, but they can't take away our good name. Even if it flops.

The movie follows Brown Valley, Wisc., insurance salesman Tim Lippe, played by the very funny Ed Helms, to a weekend convention in Cedar Rapids. Lippe is a lovable loser, but Cedar Rapids jolts his world. “Today is the first day of the rest of his weekend,” the poster proclaims.

That weekend, judging by the movie's trailer (below), is a mischievous, raunchy madcap romp. (I can't believe I just typed that.) Things get wild at “The Royal Cedar Suites,” when Lippe meets party animal Dean Ziegler, played by John C. Reilly, and insurance vixen Joan Ostrowski-Fox, played by Anne Heche.

“Insurance agents get people's lives back on track,' Lippe says. “You are a hero,” Ostrowski-Fox replies. Wow. Funny and poignant.

The real Cedar Rapids gets a 1.5-second aerial cameo in the trailer, shot, it seems, with a cell-phone camera. That's it.

Based on my own juvenile sense of humor, the movie looks funny. It's a Sundance Film Festival selection, so it may even be a minor hit, with Cedar Rapids' name, if not its scenery, front and center.

But the trailer didn't exactly offer any chamber-of-commerce lines. “I got beat up. I got completely blotto. And I befriended a prostitute. It was awesome,” Lippe tells a stewardess, presumably on his way home. Try putting that on a bumper sticker.

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