My Story of An American Pickle

 

Drown for 100 years in a barrel of pickles, Hershel Greenbaum is back to life in a Brooklyn and Williambsburg of hipsters. Among them, Ben, his gran-grand nephew, who is trying unsuccessfully to launch an app for ethnically conscious consumers. Welcome to the world of An American Pickle!

The story in itself has a plot and it resonates probably with many non-religious American Jews. Ben is the ancestor of Jews (religious) who had left their Cossack-threatened communities looking for a better future in the ´goldene medina´ (which was the USA at the time). As Ben, played by Seth Rogen, who also plays Hershel, there are many American Jews who made their Bar Mitzva, know they are Jewish but couldn´t care about it and this is also a choice. The net that connects can be, and often is, wider than the minyan of the synagogue. It can be a cemetery plot, or a pickle. 

The film has a lot of action, hilarious encounters and really really will make you laugh - even if you are not Jewish. But the thing - my thing, actually - is that by the fact of being made by people with probably a very limited - if any - Jewish knowledge, it gets it wrong at least in one respect. 

Hershel, which used to be a religious Jews - at least it is dressed as one, although his daily practice is just supposed and this for those who are expecting him to do so, is coming back to life after 100 years but his behavior is completely ´normal´. He doesn´t care about kosher, not praying, not donning tefillin. He is doing his pickle thing brilliantly, even starts a Twitter-storm with some inappropriate religious comments about another religion. but his character is mostly empty. Ben, on the other side, it looks more ´natural´ and genuine because, it seems reflects the lifestyle of the film producers. 

I will not call An American Pickle a bad or mediocre movie, is just slightly prankish by its inability to create representations of characters as they are, especially based on their historical authenticity. On the other side, the pickle story is really funny and entertaining, beyond the hipster-take. As for the rest of it, I am not impressed at all, but I am happy I´ve finally watched it as it explains how different the identity of Jews living in America can be.