Locut0s Reviews: 51 Birch Street
NOTE: This is one of about 20 movie reviews I've posted over at IMDB that I plan to repost here over time. I'll also be writing new reviews eventually.
*Possible Spoilers*
No marriage is perfect. Some are less perfect than others.
A fascinating slice of life documentary about a husband and wife and their marriage told through the eyes of their son. We all like to think that our parents lived happy lives, that their marriages were full of fulfilment, love, and happy memories. Sadly many of us know this not to be the case of their own families and that of their parents. This wonderful little documentary is told through the camera lens and emotional perspective of the son of a family that has just experienced the death of their mother. The son being a documentary film maker has filmed his elder family for many years, for as he states "posterity". Three months after the death of his mother his father remarries his long time secretary. The suddenness of this occurrence stuns the family and pushes the son to dig into the past lives of his mother and father. What he reveals is a fascinating look into the lives of two rather ordinary people who like so many of their generation married early for the wrong reasons and found themselves stuck in a family life where they found they just had to "make do". A wife who found herself at times bitterly lonely and unloved and a husband who buries himself in his work. She and intellectual at heart, he a much simpler individual who seems to find most of his pleasures in the quiet solitude of work. They are obviously wrong for each other, this much is clear. Yet they stick it out, for what? Well that's part of the mystery, they clearly show affection for each other at times if not ever much love. You won't find any truly shocking disclosures here, aside from infidelity on both sides, which in good part is what makes this such a gem. You really feel that these could be your own parents if circumstances were different and indeed makes one question the lives of ones own parents.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468442/combined
= new reply since forum marked as read
IMDB is one of the first places I stumbled onto when I first got a computer in 1999, and ever since it's been one of my favorite sites.
As for this particular movie, I've not seen it, nor would I be inclined to seek it out. I'm sure your review does it justice, it's just not something that would interest me.
What I'd be interested in is a list of the 20 movies you've reviewed at IMDB - and your username on IMDB, if you want to reveal it. If you prefer not to reveal it, I totally understand. 
