Outsourced

Cinequest 2007

I rented Outsourced for my friend Scott, a movie from Cinequest 2007 that my daughter and I had fallen in love with.

Plot: Todd Anderson is the head of a Seattle call center whose entire operation has been fired and outsourced to India. Todd is sent to India to train the new employees.

I love the movie because in the beginning you see India through Todd’s eyes; you see stereotypes, crazy cab drivers, cows in office buildings, horrendous art… but it is not long before you are seeing America through India’s eyes, and laughing harder at your own self and country and customs than you were at India. The movie shows you the beauty in “tacky” and teaches you that you are indeed a “schmuk”. Nothing I could say in a simple blog entry would get across the beauty and humor and lessons that are in this film.

“Did you like it?” I asked Scott when it was over.

“Well,” he said slowly, “Thank you. That’s what I have to say. Thank you for showing this to me. I REALLY enjoyed it.”

He was sure this one would make it to theaters – in reality, it didn’t. I see on IMDB.com that there are two theaters showing it this weekend, Varsity Theatre (Ashland,OR) and Drexel East (Columbus,OH). This is one of those movies for which you feel SO LUCKY to have had access to Cinequest, because so many people would never get to see such a fantastic film.

But you’re in luck, because you can get it now on Netflix. Or you can buy it from Amazon. I recommend you just go out and purchase it, and I am making a rare guarantee that you WILL LOVE it.

(Edited: It was eventually made into a television series, which was OKAY, but you really should see the film.)