An American Pickle Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

Ups...

6. Seth Rogen's Terrific Dual Performance

The single aspect of this movie which undeniably lives up to expectations is Seth Rogen's impressively nuanced dual performance as Herschel and Ben.

It would've been easy for Ben to simply be an adjacent version of Rogen himself - as his protagonists so often are - with Herschel being basically the same thing but with an accent, yet the two characters do indeed feel like distinct people.

Though cinema has long mastered the art of having an actor play two characters at once, sometimes the audience never quite loses sight of the trick they're seeing, whereas in this case, it's surprisingly easy to accept these characters as individuals.

Rather than make Herschel a trite or potentially offensive caricature, it's clear Rogen wanted to portray him respectfully, and while Ben is hardly much of a stretch for the actor, he's nevertheless personable and relatable in his own way.

That the two can banter and interact so convincingly without drawing attention to the obvious tricks employed to make it happen is a testament to both Rogen's pair of performances and Brandon Trost's restrained direction.