An American Pickle

The Brighton Film Club finally returns to the cinema and a quick word for the good people of Cineworld Brighton who’ve not only given the place a funky refurb’ (tippy chairs!) but have also worked mighty hard to reopen and put suitable safety measures in place for those punters who just had to get back in front of a giant screen despite the blissful weather. A huge thank you from us.

Release schedules are all over the place at the moment but hopefully bums on seats will encourage the studios to keep to theatrical releases rather than look to streaming platforms and extortionate rental costs (here’s looking at you Disney) so please go and see one of the brave films who’ve ventured into these uncharted waters if you feel suitably confident in doing so.

An American Pickle is one such new offering and Brandon Trost’s film is perhaps the perfect re-entry point - a short and heart-warming little film that tows the comedy/drama line just so.

The set up sounds like pure comedy: Seth Rogen plays a present day lonely app-developer with no family. That changes when his great-grandfather wakes up 100 years after falling into a vat of brine at the pickle factory he works at in 1919. Cue hilarity.

Or not as it turns out. The fish-out-of-water stuff could, and maybe should, have been mined for a few more laughs but the decision to buck this trend and tell a different tale should be applauded. Instead, what ensues is a sort of odd competition between the two and their differing values.

It feels like Trost wanted to use the film to make a pointed comment on the modern world. There’s lots of comment on religion, economics, business, consumerism, politics, family, ancestry and so on. By not quite sticking to one thread though it doesn’t deliver on its message. At times, it feels like it’s going to veer into a send up of the Trump administration, or try and point the finger at a younger, supposedly unappreciative generation, but quickly skews onto a different tangent.

Each thread does work well though and it is an amusing film, not exactly belly-laugh territory but it’ll keep you smiling throughout. It does make you think and it is effective in making you consider your ancestry and how we should all be a little more appreciative of our modern day comforts which is definitely an appropriate message for 2020.

Rogen is absolutely immense in the dual role. There’s a few truly excellent dual performances as you look back through film history and this can absolutely stand with them, doing the most important thing of truly distinguishing the two characters. He’s in practically the entire film with very little of a supporting cast so it’s truly impressive. He perhaps doesn’t get given enough credit for his acting but this could single-handedly change that perception.

His slightly Borat-like Herschel Greenbaum, he who gets pickled, tows the line just so between his old-fashioned and outdated morals and how a lot of them sound truly despicable in the modern day but, equally, some are values which have been lost over time. The present day character Ben is also perfectly played with enough subtlety to be the character we root for, but not so much that he can afford to ignore the lessons being taught by his ancestor.

It’s a slight film but it’s very charming, and bizarrely somewhat reminiscent of Elf, just without the Christmas theme of course. Based on a short story by Simon Rich it feels just that, a short story, a little stretched thin despite it being only 90 minutes.

Ultimately though, a pleasant and amusing easy watch.

3 stars ***