An American Pickle

 

"Ben Greenbaum, owner of 25 pair of sock."

Sometimes it takes a 130 year old Eastern European Jewish fella to remind you that in a time of excess we've forgotten the things that really and truly matter.

Herschel (Seth Rogen) and Sarah Greenbaum (Sarah Snook) have been driven out of Schlupsk by the Cossacks and their tendency to decimate any village that gets in their way. They arrive in New York City in 1920 and Herschel gets a job in a pickle factory in Brooklyn. Tragedy soon strikes when he falls into a vat of pickle brine just as the factory closes after being condemned. 100 years later he wakes up, having been perfectly preserved by the salty liquid (don't ask, just go with it). He's a man out of time, alone in this baffling new world but eventually his one living relative is found. An app designer called Ben Greenbaum who just happens to look exactly like his newly discovered great grandfather. Will they get on? Can their values co-exist?

Seth Rogen is known for a lot of things. Saying fuck a lot. Dick jokes. Fart jokes. Drug jokes, especially drug jokes. There's a theme here. What he isn't known for is wholesome, heartfelt comedies but now it's another string he can add to his bow because American Pickle is just that. A moving and quite charming reminder of how important family is, how the stuff you fill your life with is just stuff and how easy it is to forget where you came from. It's a look at today's social mores through the eyes of a total outsider, someone who couldn't possibly understand them and as such it shows just how silly we've become but also just how far we've come. Just look at the changes, both social and technical, throughout the 20th century. We knwing what we know now could cope with a jump from 2020 to 2120. But 1920 to 2020? You might as well be talking about 10000 years.

About halfway through An American Pickle Herschel gets his first taste of social media and his unfiltered and painfully outdated views cause an absolute shitstorm and yet things work out for him, people cling to the ignorant bigotry in his words and his star rises. Like many things in this film (brine preservation for one) it seems too stupid to be true and then you remember "Oh wait a minute this has happened, this is happening....this is happening with the most powerful man in the western world" and it's here you realise that An American Pickle is a lot smarter than it looks. The trailer made it look like all out zaniness but it's a film that has a brain and a heart to go along with it's comedy. Watching Herschel come to terms with his losses is affecting, especially when he gets hold of a photo album containing pictures of family he'll never meet while at the same time Ben struggles with the idea that he's a disappointment to those who came before him. Rogen sells it perfectly. On both sides. The smartarsery he's known best for is tucked away to one side and we get to see him do some genuine, honest to god thesping and guess what, he does a fine job of it.

There's plenty of humour here too though, don't worry, with Herschel's big beard, century old clothes ("Are those clothes vintage"?) and pickle knowledge becoming a big hit with the hipster community of Brooklyn's Williamsburg district. Herschel's brusque manner of fact-ness is mined to great effect too with him promising to dole out "great violence" on anyone who gets in his face and actually making good on his promise in one joyfully choreographed cemetery scrap. If Rogen ever decides to do something more action orientated (Green Lantern? Huh? What?) , he mightn't be half bad at it. Between this and last years The Long Shot he seems to be maturing as an actor and stretching himself and I for one am enjoying the results.

An American Pickle is streaming online now. It's a lovely, silly, wholesome way to spend 90 minutes of your time.