Storyline

Tim Lippe (Helms) was the guy people always thought would go places but then he just ... didn't. He's been living in über-sleepy Brown Valley, Wisconsin his whole life, still "pre-engaged" to his 7th grade teacher Millie Vanderhei (Weaver), while selling insurance to protect other people's dreams. But now, Tim's stalled life is about to get a kick-start because, for the first time in his 34 years, he's headed to a "major" metropolis - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - where he must try to save his company at a do-or-die insurance convention that, for him, will be entirely nonconventional. From the minute he checks into his hotel with his ancient American Tourister and cummerbund money-belt, it's clear Tim has no idea how the modern world really works. He is soon smitten with seductive Nebraskan insurance agent Joan (Heche) and awed by his experienced roommates, the straight-shooting Wilkes (Whitlock Jr.) and the suspicious Zeigler (Reilly)...

THE BUZZ: Miguel Arteta's "Youth in Revolt" didn't get a fair shake last year (chalk it up to now-standard Weinstein Company antics) but we're primed for his new film, mainly because it affords Ed Helms the opportunity to be a leading man -- even if his Tim Lippe seems like a close relative of Stu Price. Riding a decent wave of buzz out of Sundance, Fox Searchlight, whose comedies have fumbled a bit of late, has a champion here.
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