01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 6, 2006

BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

After a very slow and rather dull opening, in which documentary filmmaker Doug Block seems to be doing no more than making a sappy memorial to his parents in 51 Birch Street, the film takes off into surprising places, grabbing hold right to the end.

At first there are the requisite collections of old home movies coupled with more recent footage of his parents discussing their half-century marriage and their lives in suburban Long Island. It seems like a million stories, presented on film only because Block had a movie camera.

But early in production on 51 Birch Street, which also was the address of their house, Block's mother, Minna, died unexpectedly. And from that shocking tragedy, his film took off into unexpected places.

It wasn't long before another shock was in store for the fortysomething filmmaker and his two older sisters. Their father, Mike, took off for Florida and, three months after his wife's death, announced he was marrying his former secretary of 35 years earlier, who had long before divorced her husband and headed South.

Suddenly, Block's father, with whom he had never had more than an awkward relationship, blossoms. It shocks his children as suddenly Mike begins laughing and dancing and being the life of the party. "This is our unemotional, undemonstrative Dad," says one of his daughters in disbelief.

His mother's death and his father's sudden remarriage not only changed the dynamics of Block's film, they sent him on a long odyssey to discover who his mother really was and what his parents actually felt about their 54-year marriage.

More surprises and shocks are in store for Block and his sisters as he begins poring over his late mother's recently discovered diaries, kept faithfully daily for more than 30 years. He interviews her friends. He interviews his father. He interviews his father's new wife. He talks to his sisters.

Everyone is very frank and open, including Block himself, who spares no heartache to uncover the truth.

Block presents 51 Birch Street as a mystery, slowly piecing together clues about his mother's past to discover what she felt and why. Block highlights key words in her diaries, showing her to be a deeply unhappy woman who for many years felt unfulfilled. She was "an intellectual city kid stuck in the suburbs" of the 1950s, he says, a time when few options were open to pre-lib women. Minna finally came alive under psychotherapy, falling in unrequited love with her therapist, about whom she fills pages of her diary with sexual fantasies.

He feels guilt over uncovering his mother's secret life. "I can't help thinking, maybe when it comes to your parents ignorance is bliss," he says. He consults a young, understanding rabbi, looking for answers and wondering whether he should have read his mother's diaries.

There are more surprises in store in Block's film, including Mike's shattering honesty about his feelings for his late wife. They give 51 Birch Street its heartrending reality, which glues one to the screen, something fiction films can't even approach.

51 Birch Street Rated: Not rated, contains adult themes.

mjanuson@projo.com / (401) 277-7276

51 Birch Street will play at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the Opera House 3 and at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Newport Art Museum as part of the Newport International Film Festival. Tickets, at $10, are at the festival box office, 17 Touro St., Newport.