Triumph of goodness

Two films, this week, because I spoil you — what can I say? It’s in my nature — and not much to choose between them apart from the fact that one is good (Cedar Rapids) and one is so bad (Arthur) that just thinking about it makes me want to weep for myself, for remakes, for film audiences, for the state of cinema today, for humankind and for dogs that are cruelly treated, which is not especially relevant but, if I am weeping anyway, I might as well include them.

Two films, this week, because I spoil you — what can I say? It’s in my nature — and not much to choose between them apart from the fact that one is good (Cedar Rapids) and one is so bad (Arthur) that just thinking about it makes me want to weep for myself, for remakes, for film audiences, for the state of cinema today, for humankind and for dogs that are cruelly treated, which is not especially relevant but, if I am weeping anyway, I might as well include them. You wouldn’t want to waste a weep.

But let’s start brightly, with Cedar Rapids, which, with its familiar characters and familiar story arc, isn’t a blazingly original comedy, but it has such a nice, tender-hearted feel to it I was won over and charmed.

It stars Ed Helms (from the American version of The Office, apparently, and The Hangover), as Tim Lippe, an insurance agent who has never left his small hometown of Brown Valley in Wisconsin. He lives in his childhood house. He has never stayed in a hotel. He has never been on an aeroplane. He is a naif and while there is nothing new about naifs in movies — Being There; Forrest Gump, The Truman Show — this is smart enough to have a few neat surprises up its sleeve.