An American Pickle

Released 2020. Director: Brandon Trost

AS SOCIETIES EVOLVE, EVERY OLDER GENERATION looks on the next one and laments the erosion of cherished traditions and values. Meanwhile, every younger generation looks on the ones preceding as out of touch with progress. An American Pickle takes this premise as a foundation for comic evaluation of what's important, personal and timeless. A mild-mannered eccentric comedy that's unlikely to make you laugh out loud, it's genuinely funny at times with moments of perceptive absurdity.

Eastern Europe in 1919 is a dreary place for ditch-digger Herschel Greenbaum and his wife Sarah. Life is a constant struggle but the couple remain hopeful. After their village is ravaged by the Russian Cossacks, Herschel and a pregnant Sarah manage to find safe passage to America where he finds a job in a pickle factory but not for long. One fateful day, just as the factory is being declared condemned, Herschel falls into a vat of pickles and is left to brine for the next hundred years before he's discovered, alive.

Herschel awakes to a very different world in 2019 and discovers his only descendant left is great-grandson Benjamin Greenbaum. The two men—now about the same age—will learn how similar they are in some ways, and how diametrically opposed they are in others.

Adapted from a short story by Simon Rich, director Brandon Trost has fashioned out of a fractious inter-generational encounter a quaint comedy about changing perceptions versus unchanging values. Herschel is initially amazed at modern conveniences (Seltzer water at home at the touch of a button!), but disappointed that Ben is a loser without a wife or a proper job (he works from home designing an app called Boop Bop).

What gets his blood boiling is the billboard advertising Russian vodka right above the neglected grave of his beloved Sarah, on the edge of a dilapidated Jewish cemetery. An altercation with workers at the cemetery get Herschel and Ben arrested. The criminal record dooms Ben's business venture to launch his app and he blames the old man.

Much of the comedy is built around Herschel being a man out of touch. Although he's unfamiliar with how the new world works, the man is unfazed. Herschel sets out on his own, using old-school method to make money by pickling discarded cucumbers with rain water and selling them on the street. Social media makes him an overnight sensation before he's put out of business for health code violation, no thanks to Ben dobbing him in.

There's also an amusing sequence of Herschel using what he calls slavery (otherwise known as internship) to revive his business, and the ultimate cancellation when Ben baits his great-grandfather to spew politically incorrect remarks and rant on Twitter. The situation flips when an identity mix-up results in Ben getting deported to a country he's never been and an ancestral culture he's never experienced.

Herschel doesn't get the new world order, but his intention is pure: to tear down the offensive sign above his wife's grave. Ben is at odds with his great-grandfather because they don't see eye to eye. Seth Rogen plays both roles with great relish, like twins sabotaging each other. What makes it work is Rogen doesn't overplay the scenes for sentiments or silliness. Ben is often spirited while Herschel is reserved and Rogen maintains the two personalities without once letting his signature raucous persona slip through. The tone throughout has a light touch and doesn't strain for effect, which befits an oddball comedy that's ultimately about family, traditions and values.

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