OUTSOURCED

Director: John Jeffcoat
Cast: Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker, Asif Basra, Matt Smith, Larry Pine
Run Time: 98 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2008
Language: English
Rating: PG (No advisory)

A note-perfect comedy, Outsourced follows a Seattle call-centre manager who discovers life and love in India when he’s “outsourced.” Inspired by director John Jeffcoat’s semester abroad in Southern Asia, Outsourced captures with great generosity and wit the comic magic of an American out of his element.

Thirty-two-year-old Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) manages Western Novelty’s order-filling call centre. “We sell kitsch to rednecks,” he explains, with typical efficiency. Told by boss Dave (Matt Smith) that his entire department is abruptly being outsourced to India, Todd staves off unemployment by accepting a contract to travel there and train his replacement.

Outsourced has good fun early on with Todd’s introduction to Indian hospitality, marked by endless cups of sweet tea and polite inquiries of “What is your good name, please?” But the film is far too astute and charming to rest on stereotypes. When Todd lands at his company’s half-built office in Mumbai, he meets young Indians mystified by Americans’ desire to buy such products as Burger Branders and plastic Cheeseheads. Through the business skill, sincere friendship and eventual love of employee Asha (Ayesha Dharker), Todd learns to embrace his new surroundings and marshal the available forces to get the job done.

Outsourcing has become an all-too-familiar phenomenon, and there are a million ways to get this story wrong, but the combination of a smart script, agile direction and winning  erformances make Outsourced a guaranteed hit.

“This unaffected charmer treats a hot-button contemporary issue with old-fashioned grace and benevolent wit, rendering it a sure-fire word-of-mouth crowd-pleaser” – Eddie Cockrell, Variety

Reviews: www.metacritic.com/film/titles/outsourced

Website/Trailer: www.outsourcedthemovie.com