review for 51 Birch Street on AllMovie

It takes a bold filmmaker to read the diary of his dead mother and make a film about the revelations contained within. We should be thankful Doug Block let his natural inquisitiveness take him down that road, because the resulting documentary, 51 Birch Street, is not only fascinating to watch, but respectful in a way not indicated by that inflammatory and callous-sounding description. Block actually started out with the harmless enough project of filming interviews with his parents for the sake of posterity. His mother's sudden death dealt a fatal (as it were) blow to that original agenda, and Block's adaptation to the changed circumstances has resulted in a far more interesting movie -- one that would actually have interest to an audience beyond his own family. In fact, so committed is Block to exploring the intimacy of his discoveries, he even puts his own marriage -- imperfect but generally happy -- under the microscope. 51 Birch Street is clearly personal filmmaking at its most personal. But by using the specific residential address of his family home as his title, to represent any family or any marriage in the world, Block underscores the universality of his themes. The eternal marital conflict, between the desire for a stable family life and the desire to find true bliss, plays out in thought-provoking ways. The unadulterated outpouring of thoughts and feelings in Mina Block's diary sheds light on occurrences that are otherwise hard to publicly justify, such as Mina's widower taking up with his former secretary soon after her death -- the secretary-boss dynamic only adding extra scandal to an already scandalous-sounding relationship. However, as 51 Birch Street explores, love takes many forms -- including the instinct to protect a person who loved you very imperfectly, even at the expense of your own good name.