Outsourced

Outsourced is about a young manager from Seattle whose call-centre is outsourced to India and how he has to go to India to train the new staff. The call centre sells American patriotic kitsch (such as plastic model bald eagles made in China, and hamburger branding irons) to Americans so among the many challenges of getting the new call centre up to speed is making the customers think they're calling within America, or at least making them happy to be calling India.

Outsourced was our first outing to this year's International Cinema Showcase at the Paramount, and its a very nice movie - life affirming, even. You could probably take your grandmother, unless she finds the thought of unmarried sex or cross-cultural relationships disturbing.

I'm probably making it sound a bit sickly, which it isn't. One of its roles is to contrast life in India with life in America without taking sides, and another is to challenge some our assumptions about India. And then there's poking fun at both America and India and their inhabitants - there's even some toilet humour, which is rare for an American movie. It's a comedy and a romance, and although its not earth-shattering its well worth seeing, especially if you're in need of a movie to cheer you up.

Anne's rating: 4/5 , Ian's rating 3.5/5