An American Pickle
For such a weird, high-concept comedy, An American Pickle sheds its zaniness surprisingly quickly.
The HBO Max exclusive stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, an Eastern European Jew who moves to 1920 Brooklyn to seek a better life for him and his wife Sarah (Sarah Snook, Succession). At his pickle factory job, Herschel falls (improbably unnoticed) into a vat of vinegary cucumbers and, seconds later, the factory is condemned and the giant container is sealed up with him inside.
In the not-quite 15 minutes it takes to reach Herschel’s accident, Saturday Night Live scribe Simon Rich (adapting his short story “Sell Out”) squeezes in a generous amount of gags concerning hardships in the Old Country and the only slightly better American immigrant experience.
And the witty jokes continue once Herschel wakes up 100 years later, including a hilarious handling of explaining the science behind how he survived for a century, and in our man’s understandable discombobulation in adapting to the modern world under the wing of his great-grandson Ben (also Rogen).
But as An American Pickle attempts to add an emotional undercurrent to the comedy through Herschel visiting the shockingly unkempt family cemetery plot and Ben’s unwillingness to confront his lingering sadness at losing his parents a few years prior, the film largely abandons its core Rip Van Winkle wackiness for a new storyline that follows the rift that arises through the relatives’ discord in how they mourn the dead.
Despite its believability, the rivalry between Herschel and Ben is a somewhat unsatisfactory substitute for the initial nuttiness and overall inanity of the basic reason for their improbable reunion, and though quality laughs arise from intelligent jabs at Williamsburg hipsters who turn Herschel’s impromptu pickle business into an artisanal sensation, the shift in overall style isn’t as successful.
True to form, Rogen is sufficiently funny in both roles, but the schtick of his dual performances wears a bit thin as the family beef drags on. Not helping matters is that Rich’s script barely has the Greenbaums interact with anyone beyond venture capitalist Liam (Jorma Taccone, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping), pickle business intern Clara (Molly Evensen), and a few pickle fans, leaving Rogen to rely on himself — via a stand-in — to deliver his lines.
(Mark Ruffalo in I Know This Much Is True, this ain’t.)
Still, enough laudable elements keep An American Pickle engaging, including the sharp visuals — maybe not a surprise with it being the feature directorial debut of Brandon Trost, cinematographer on the bulk of Rogen’s recent output, beginning with This Is the End (2013), even though he’s not the DP here.
The film also briefly re-embraces its oddball roots in its third act, during which it wonderfully appears to be morphing into a hyper-relevant political metaphor, then changes course again and takes a path lined with a surplus of sentimentality that nonetheless produces several moving moments.
Perhaps the hodgepodge of tones and concepts is appropriate for a comedy about a man preserved for a century in a giant container of dills, but considering how well its goofy foundational ones work, it’s a shame that it wasn’t seen through with more confidence.
Grade: B-minus. Rated PG-13. Available to stream via HBO Max starting Aug. 6
(Photo: HBO Max)
