Review by Gorrman Lee.

Outsourced begins with Todd Anderson, the manager of the call centre for an American novelty company, discovering that his entire department is being outsourced to India. He has two options: he can fly to Mumbai to train his replacement and get the new department up and running, or he can quit and lose his stock options. Obviously, he chooses to go to India or we wouldn’t have a movie.

For the first third of the film, I felt really uneasy about where the plot was going. Though Outsourced is first and foremost a comedy, the gags are kind of predictable. Most of all, the beginning of the film pokes fun at Indian quirks, which immediately prepares you for an unfortunate, potentially offensive film-watching experience.

Once the film enters its second act, however, the tone changes and the film takes on a more “fish out of water” feeling. Todd no longer observes the Indian customs as bizarre or wacky, but simply as different. Soon, he also learns to embrace India instead of fighting it. It is also in this second act that the film begins to satirize American culture, particularly its capitalist buying habits (Todd does work for a novelty company). Todd's transformation allows the audience to relax and film becomes funnier and more enjoyable, even if some of the jokes are still predictable. A true crowd pleaser.

Outsourced
John Jeffcoat | USA/India | 2006 | 102min

Sat. Oct. 6 | 3:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Tue. Oct. 9 | 6:40pm | Empire Granville Theatre