Offshore (2006)

29% of critics liked it
(7 reviews)
42% of users liked it
(575 ratings)

Detroit-based filmmaker Diane Cheklich offers an intimate take on an international business trend in this office drama detailing the battle that erupts after an outsourced cubicle dweller is forced to personally train her replacements -- three ambitious young Indians who have been hand-selected to… More Detroit-based filmmaker Diane Cheklich offers an intimate take on an international business trend in this office drama detailing the battle that erupts after an outsourced cubicle dweller is forced to personally train her replacements -- three ambitious young Indians who have been hand-selected to help get a small Indian call center off the ground. Fairfax Furniture CEO Derek Abernathy has a problem -- if he doesn't manage to cut costs quickly, odds are he'll be out of a job before he can blink. Desperate to save his own skin even if it means throwing his own employees under the proverbial bus, Abernathy gives the go-ahead to outsource the company's call center to a small Indian start-up called Voxx. But technically Voxx doesn't even exist yet, so when India-based businessman Devendra Tiwari and his son Ajay realize they have only two months to get the company up and running, they send Nikhil, Anjali, and Reva to Detroit to familiarize themselves with Fairfax Furniture products and gain a solid understanding of proper call center procedure. Needless to say, the current crop of call center employees aren't too thrilled about the prospect of training their replacements, and quickly wage war against the three newcomers. Call center manager Carol is particularly miffed, and wastes no time making the three visitors' lives miserable by sabotaging their training, ostracizing them in the office, and even rallying a local television reporter to her cause. With the lines drawn firmly in the sand and the three hapless trainees quickly nearing the emotional breaking point, only time will tell whether Abernathy's decision to outsource will save Fairfax Furniture or backfire and bring down the whole company. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Diane Cheklich
Written By: Diana Cheklich, Peg Bogema, Diane Cheklich, Chetana Kowshik
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: May 29, 2009 Wide
Studio: Big Pictures

Critic Reviews

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Hampered by a script that veers from infantile to ugly and a director who doesn't know when to say "cut."
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
Michigan-based filmmaker Diane Cheklich's insipid, cheapjack dramedy -- about a flagging company's decision to outsource -- isn't potent enough to even be called a lukewarm-button movie.
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
Has an initially intriguing plot that's quite timely, but ultimately falls flat as a drama, socioeconomic critique and comedy with an unfocused screenplay that's often jejune and contrived.
Matthew Nestel, Boxoffice Magazine
What's cobbled together in Diane Cheklich's harebrained feature is a mishmash of desperate clichés and over-the-top depictions of Americans as vile, lazy recalcitrants who gleek racial epithets after each swig from a cheap beer or an oversized coffee mug.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
...we get a in depth look into Italian politics. But, you don't need to be familiar with that country's volatile recent years to enjoy a fine piece of filmmaking.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Dark comedy about the effects of outsourcing on an American call center about to lose its jobs to Mumbai. The film offers no pat solutions to a problem that faces workers everywhere, but it does challenge us to think about a system that is involved in a r
Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
By painting the downsized as a bunch of racist grotesques, Cheklich does a disservice to those Americans threatened with the very real prospect of suffering layoffs.