Errol Morris Does it Again With ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ [Review]

Errol Morris’ reputation is that of a titan of the non-fiction genre. Every documentary the 75-year-old filmmaker releases, and there have now been 13 of them, is its own kind of movie event.

Morris single-handedly redefined what the documentary could do with his 1988 film "The Thin Blue Line," and has continued to produce mesmerizing, important work such as "The Fog of War," “A Brief History of Time,” "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control," “American Dharma” and "Mr. Death."

His latest is called “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and it centers on late espionage author John Le Carré. This also happened to be the last interview Le Carré gave before his death in late 2020. Suffice to say, neither the subject, nor its host, disappoint in their attempts to dig deep into the human psyche.

The film plays like a rabbit hole, Le Carré himself was a former spy, which means he constantly manipulates the viewer, and Morris, here, and during the course of the interview you’re never really sure whether his stories are fact or fiction.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, and leading into present day, the film spans six decades as le Carré brings us into his elusive background. From his constantly jailed father to his sketchy background in British security services to his fame as an English author, it all plays, well, like an espionage novel.

It’s a brilliantly rendered puzzler and Phillip Glass’ as-usual swooning score compliments it all very well. Morris has a fairly well-worn formula to his films — re-enactments, photographs, interrogations — but Le Carré is such a master storyteller, ditto Morris, that you can’t help but hang on to every word.

Le Carré, a seasoned individual who grew up with British spy agencies, never cracks, you see some hints of emotion when he speaks of his father, but he never loses grip of the narrative he wants to tell. He’s ice-cold but warmly likable, all at the same time.

Clearly, the whole story isn’t being told here, and we might never know it, but that’s what fascinates most about this doc: the hidden secrets that lurk between the frames. [B+]