Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen) is accidentally preserved following a fall into a pickle vat in 1919. One hundred years later he is woken up and meets his great grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also Seth Rogen) who tries to show him the modern world before they fall out.

An American Pickle is a quaint and fun little film but even with a short running time of 88 minutes it feels slightly long with an ending hard to come by. The first half is a lot of fun though.

Opening with a love story and Herschel making a promise to his wife in a lovely sepia toned square 1:1 ratio the film has a neat little set up showing us the fighting spirit of an immigrant in New York. As we find ourselves in modern day Brooklyn the aspect ratio widens and we are in full colour in a brilliant throw away press conference explaining away the science of the preservative that brings Herschel into the future. From here we get a fun rivalry between family members and a view on how importance family and religion is to Jewish people as well as the fighting spirit of someone from an older generation and their antiquated world view.

Seth Rogen does a good job in a dual role in a film that has little in the way of co-stars after Sarah Snook’s cameo as Herschel’s wife.

It is letdown by its struggle for an ending and settles on one that is just as quaint and quiet as what has gone before. Enjoyable but not essential.