An American Pickle Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

5. The Knowingly Ridiculous Plot

The movie's plot is one of those premises which, on paper, could clearly go either way.

It's easy to picture An American Pickle as one of Adam Sandler's Netflix vehicles which fails to find any sort of tonal compromise between its sillier and more serious elements.

But thankfully in the hands of Rogen and his collaborators, this ridiculous story works precisely because it knows how utterly daft it is, and even draws attention to this fact.

Only a single scene is spent explaining how Herschel managed to survive 100 years inside a pickle barrel, yet the punchline ultimately is that the method doesn't really matter - it's simply a means to a dramatic end.

Though things get a little too wacky in act three, throughout there's no attempt made to shy away from how patently insane the entire scenario is, and that's a good thing.