Outsourced

[Niles]

I'm in the process of writing a review for this movie. The plot is that a US, Seattle based manager of an order fulfillment dept. for "Western Novelty" (cheap patriotic products) is sent to India to train his replacement and set up the replacement department. He doesn't want to go, but is threatened with the loss of his options, and other things he's invested into the job. He's resistant to Indian culture, has no sense of himself as an American - and there's the setup. The movie is a gentle romantic comedy about him discovering that there are some things Indian (including the lovely Ayesha Dharker, who played the evil queen in attack of the clones) worth incorporating into his life. Anyone else seen this?

 

[midcan5]

wow, that is interesting. Seeing the impact of outsourcing on American workers, particularly in technology and help desk, I have to wonder who would write a romantic comedy on this topic? I had a course in college, American history through film, that looked at film through the eyes of the time and the ideas the larger society wanted to convey. Very interesting class, as propaganda was less sophisticated, and the theme was obvious, sometimes purposely.

 

[Niles]

I'm sure you looked at Forrest Gump in that class! But did you see "Medium Cool"? There's a good movie for looking at US history (it's a fiction, a narrative, but shot against the real live background of the 1968 Chicago DNC riots). I went to film school and took a similar class called "Film and Social Change", but it wasn't just the US and a lot of the movies were not fictional or narratives, but intentional political statements. I read in the Hollywood Reporter that they are making a TV show out of Outsourced. I hope that it focuses on a cultural lesson for each episode in addition to being a funny sitcom, because that's what I liked about the movie, the gentle addressing of issues coupled with touching moments. I liked how it addressed stereotypes without being them.