51 Birch Street (2005) review

"Do you think this can lead to a kind of closeness with him?"

"Well, I'd like to. We have just a few days left, so..."

"Before he-"

"Before he's gone off to Florida, which might as well be another planet, right?"

"Well-" *laughs* "Not for Jews."

Most Americans of a certain age know a family like this. A stoic, workaholic father. A repressed, frustrated mother. Kids caught in the currents. The difference is, this family had a son willing to stick his camera in front of everyone, and they were mostly willing to put up with the crux of that, that your private interfamilial conversations might become public.

The explosive revelation most documentaries of this type thrive on, never comes. No secret family, no secret life of crime. Lies and secrets, yes, but the relative banality is sort of what makes the doc tick. No one's going to make a dramatic adaptation of 51 Birch Street, it's too real for that.