Mark Reviews Movies: AN AMERICAN PICKLE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 6, 2020

The premise of An American Pickle doesn't make a lick of logical sense. In 1919, a Jewish man from an Eastern European country, who recently immigrated to the United States with his wife, falls into vat of pickling brine, which is sealed just before the pickle factory is condemned. A hundred years later, he is released by chance and studied in a lab.

A group of reporters pester the scientists, wondering how they expect anyone to believe that such a thing is possible, pointing out how illogical the situation is, and asking for the science behind it. Simon Rich's screenplay skips over the explanation with some narration. Every journalist buys the unheard explanation, finds it wholly logical, and deems the science behind it to be "perfect."

That's the right way to go with a story such as this one, which isn't about how such an absurd occurrence happened. It's an old-fashioned fable. The concept matters, but the consequences resulting from the fantastical premise matter even more.

The movie, directed by Brandon Trost and based on Rich's short story "Sell Out," is most assuredly a fable, not only about the cultural and existential shock of a man who wakes up to discover that the entire world has changed without him, but also about how much we have gained and lost with this changed world. Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen), the pickled man, knew only poverty, family, and faith. His biggest hope for life was to one day have a meager taste of seltzer water.

Imagine his shock and joy, then, when his great-grandson Ben (also Rogen), living in an apartment in a much-transformed Brooklyn, makes an entire bottle of seltzer water with a machine on his countertop in a matter of seconds. Herschel takes a sip, savors the bubbly tingle, and finds it everything for which he hoped—and maybe even more. There's also, though, just a tinge of melancholy in the aftermath. He has achieved his dream, so now, what else is left?

There's a simple, truthful purity to that scene, which, honestly, the whole of the movie might have been wiser to adopt. That tone is present throughout, for sure, but Rich and Trost don't seem to trust it. Their aims, after all, are not just fabulous, as in the storytelling approach and goal of a fable. They're also comedic, as in finding just how silly it might be for a man with 100-year-old ideas, values, and attitudes to be plunged suddenly and without warning into our modern age.

The sincerity works for certain. The comedy works occasionally, although it deteriorates in effectiveness as Herschel's journey to become an entrepreneur takes on the weight of having something to say about our cultural, social, and political landscapes.

The movie's most authentic and authentically funny moments come when those tones and aims merge, such as during the seltzer water scene. The humor comes from the simple desire of the character and the simple fact that what was once a luxury is now taken for granted. It is simple, not complex and aiming for some grandiose statement about the current state of the world. In seeing something so simple through this character's eyes and in such a bittersweet way, though, the moment actually does say something about the world and our place within it.

Rich's story quickly turns the cultural shock into a familial conflict. Herschel opposes Ben's lack of religious faith, apparent dismissal of family, and hesitation to follow through on his career aspiration (He made a cellphone application but delays doing anything with it).

A trip to the family cemetery plot, filled with litter and in the shadow of a billboard, ends with the two men being arrested. Ben becomes a pariah for investors and blames his great-grandfather. Herschel decides to start a pickle empire in order to prove his great-grandson an idiot.

It's amusing, to be sure, especially in Rogen's dual performance. Well, it's mainly in the actor's performance as Herschel, which at first seems like a caricature based on broken English spoken in a vague dialect and the vocalization of outdated ideas, only to reveal some genuine pain when the movie decides to be sincere. The effect of Rogen playing against himself is rather convincing, too.

It also, though, feels as if the business of the plot—Herschel's rise (He discovers interns or, as he calls them, "slaves") and Ben's constant attempts to sabotage him—prevents the story from getting to the heart of the matter. The core of this story is about family and embracing one's past, as well as, on a broader scale, about the consistent and persistent concept of the American Dream—that each proceeding generation will accomplish more than the previous one. Rich gets to the smaller, familial theme, as Herschel and Ben fight and reconcile, but the bigger notions are mostly excuses for plot complications and roughly satirical observations (Herschel discovers social media and begins a nationwide debate about free speech).

There is real sincerity here—about these characters, their grief, their dreams, their sense of identity, and the ever-evolving but uncertain promise of America. Trost and Rich have something to say, and if not for the repeated interruptions of plot contrivances and random gags, An American Pickle might have said more—and more deeply felt as if it meant those things.

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