“An American Pickle” is a new film exclusively on HBO Max which was directed by Brandon Trost and stars Seth Rogen in dual roles. The film is a fish out of water comedy about an immigrant named Hershel Greenbaum who fell into a vat of pickle brine in 1919 America and time travels 100 years into the future where he meets his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum. Both characters are played by Seth Rogen. The film is able to distract the viewer from the ridiculous plot due to its funny characters and Seth Rogen’s strong performances.
As I’ve stated, Seth Rogen was great in the movie. He made the characters feel like completely different people even when they were standing next to each other and conversing. The best parts of the film were the scenes where the two relatives are just talking to each other and seeing the blatant differences between themselves, and that was mainly due to Seth Rogen’s performances. Also, the director did a fantastic job at making those scenes where the characters were together believable. The stunt doubles weren’t obvious, and neither were the special effects.
However, the movie had some significant flaws. The second half of the film was very cliché, unlike the first half and therefore it was not as funny as the first half. I don’t want to spoil it, but basically it was 45 minutes of the two characters tormenting each other. Also, the ending was extremely abrupt. The scene right before the last one was very dramatic and serious, and without spoiling anything, there was an enormous problem facing one of the characters that was integral to the overall plot. Somehow, that problem was resolved in the next scene and the movie just arbitrarily ended. It was very poor script writing.
“An American Pickle” isn’t Seth Rogen’s best movie, but it certainly has two of his best performances and it was at times hilarious. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Rogen and would like to see him in a strange, unique film.
Grade: B