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09/05/2008 0:00am
DVDs: Humor-filled detours for innocents abroad
Sep. 5--In this age of globalization, fish-out-of-water stories about naive and unprepared Americans who are thrust into foreign lands can make for compelling, if sometimes obvious, moviemaking. Two independent films receiving their DVD debuts this week explore this theme with very different results.
"Outsourced" (PorchLight Home Entertainment, $24.98, rated PG-13), the debut film of director and co-writer John Jeffcoat, stars Josh Hamilton as the Seattle-based fulfillment manager of Western Novelty, a company that makes stuff like Green Bay Packers cheeseheads and collectibles with patriotic themes. His job is being outsourced to India, and to make things even worse, his boss sends him there to train his replacement and get the staff in Gharapuri up to speed.
"Outsourced," which had a limited theatrical release in 2007 (and did not open in Sacramento), conforms to the usual romantic comedy story form: The lead character's combination of hubris and cultural ignorance gets challenged by the culture and people of the society in which he finds himself.
And there's the requisite sidekick -- Purohit N. Virajnarianan (played by Asif Basra), the man he's supposed to train to succeed him -- and the requisite love interest, Asha (Ayesha Dharker), a vivacious and intelligent staff member.
But "Outsourced," co-written by George Wing, manages to be observant, funny, informative and respectful throughout. We learn about India along with Todd, and it's a pleasant, if often unsettling, journey. Credit Hamilton (whose Todd is called "Mr. Toad" by the Indians he meets) and Dharker for delivering performances that are completely fresh and natural.
"Outsourced" is also beautifully shot by cinematographer Teodoro Maniaci and an Indian film crew, capturing the teeming streets of cities and the contrasts between poverty and affluence, modernization and tradition in an old but rapidly changing country.
The other new DVD this week, "The Art of Travel" (First Look Studios, $24.98, rated R), had its local premiere last April at the Sacramento International Film Festival -- fitting enough, since Tim Whelan, its director and co-writer (with Brian La Belle), is a Sacramentan. And the film's opening credits are accompanied by picture-postcard views of Sacramento scenes.
Christopher Masterson stars as Connor Layne, a young man about to get married who learns that his fiancee has been having an affair with his best friend. He bolts from the wedding and takes the first plane he can get on to a foreign country -- arriving in Managua, Nicaragua, totally unprepared.
Having a poor sense of geography, virtually no Spanish and absolutely no tourist smarts, Connor is robbed, pickpocketed and mugged in short order. His nightmare is sort of assuaged by the presence of two lovely young women from the Netherlands. Who knew that Dutch women living in Managua parade around the house topless?
Soon this American traveler ends up in Panama, miraculously self-assured and speaking decent Spanish, where he hooks up with an American husband-and-wife who are leading a team of adventurers on a dangerous, 100-mile journey across the Darien Gap, a dense territory separating Panama and Colombia.
Here, Connor endures the usual jungle adventures involving snakes and mud, climbs and descends nearly impassable mountains, encounters friendly natives with adoring children and not-so-friendly guerrillas, falls in love and finds himself.
Unlike "Outsourced," which also journeys to cliche land but makes up for it with good humor and solid acting, "The Art of Travel" never reaches its destination. The dialogue is self- consciously clever, with characters delivering little one-liners and repartee that never seems real. And Masterson appears far too long in the tooth to play a young man just out of high school.
Worse, "The Art of Travel" reveals little about the people and cultures Connor visits -- other than to show that Managua is dangerous, Dutch women are hot, and Panamanian children living in remote villages love English-speaking strangers.
OUTSOURCED
3 1/2 stars
CAST: Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker, Larry Pine and Asif Basra
DIRECTOR: John Jeffcoat
DISTRIBUTOR: PorchLight Home Entertainment
Rated PG-13
THE ART OF TRAVEL
1 1/2 stars
CAST: Christopher Masterson, Brooke Burns, Johnny Messner, Angelika Baran, Bijou Phillips and Maria Conchita Alonso
DIRECTOR: Thomas Whelan
DISTRIBUTOR: First Look Studios
Rated R
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