"Outsourced" (2006): Sweet as Banana Lassi

‘Americans get angry over their jobs being outsourced. But aren’t so many of the products they buy made in China?’

This is just one of the smart observations made in this endearing, beautifully told story. Watching “Outsourced” feels like watching a foreign film at it’s best. Rich, intriguing characters, a reluctant outsider, and a warm, unfolding culture. An American employee is shipped off to India when the novelty company he works for decides to outsource their sales support. Josh Hamilton plays the culturally insensitive American who slowly opens his mind, and heart, to a new culture...a new way of thinking.


(<---- The adorable Ayesha Dharker)
I couldn’t help but be reminded of “Local Hero” (1983), in which Peter Riegert’s pre-Bill Murray, intricately underplayed character is sent to Scotland to buy a village where his company plans to build an oil refinery. Outsourced is a little funnier, a little lighter, but achieves the same feeling, nonetheless.

I had the honor of performing in a staged reading of one of George Wing’s works in progress when I lived in Seattle. His previous hit, “50 First Dates,” has the same romantic heart. His collaboration with John Jeffcoat has produced a thinking person’s love story, that takes a look at the day to day realities of outsourcing American jobs.

There’s no Hollywood prerequisite “edginess” here— no murders, explosions. Just an economics/love story that really blew me away. This is the first film I’m rating 5 salt shakers..... a classic, a must-see.