‘The Negotiator’ review: Portrait of US senator George J Mitchell, Good Friday Agreement architect

Dir: Trevor Birney. Northern Eire. 2025. 92mins.

A tribute to the politician who helped shepherd the 1998 Good Friday Settlement, The Negotiator provides an interesting however restricted portrait of former Democratic US senator George J Mitchell. Director Trevor Birney conducts a collection of interviews with the statesman about how he discovered himself accountable for navigating a tenuous peace in Northern Eire after so many failed makes an attempt by others. Boasting a wealth of spectacular speaking heads, this affectionate documentary feels a bit shiny and uninquisitive, regardless of its laudable advocacy for level-headed diplomacy over mindless bloodshed

Doesn’t go to nice lengths to light up Mitchell’s internal life, contradictions or complexities

Screening in Galway after Docs Eire, the movie might entice curious Irish viewers all in favour of Mitchell’s shaping of Northern Eire historical past. Elsewhere, although, The Negotiator could also be of restricted curiosity, besides maybe amongst US audiences accustomed to the veteran politician. Nonetheless, Birney’s function as a producer of the Bafta-winning hip-hop biopic Kneecap ought to bolster consciousness.

Mitchell, who turns 92 this yr, explains that he has had many roles, together with lawyer, federal choose and senator. However so far as he’s involved, he has been primarily a negotiator — a ability mandatory in every of these roles. Right here he appears again at his life, with a lot of the documentary specializing in the 4 years he spent orchestrating a decision between completely different factions in Northern Eire, Eire and Britain within the mid-to-late Nineteen Nineties. As well as, Birney speaks to friends and world leaders, together with Invoice Clinton and Tony Blair, to get a way of what makes Mitchell such a shrewd negotiator.

The movie doesn’t go to nice lengths to light up Mitchell’s internal life, contradictions or complexities. Past his shocking determination to step down from the US Senate in 1994, when he was an enormously fashionable majority chief, in an effort to get married and have a household in his early 60s, The Negotiator takes little discover of him as a flesh-and-blood particular person, extra all in favour of chronicling his skilled achievements. Birney’s speaking heads are fairly complimentary of his intelligence, judgment and decency, however private anecdotes and revealing tidbits are in brief provide.

Equally, Mitchell is pretty reserved in his interviews. Not given to grandstanding or brash pronouncements, he exudes a quiet dignity, projecting calm authority whether or not discussing his army service within the Fifties or recalling his time within the US Senate. Befitting its buttoned-down title, The Negotiator honours a person whose lack of flash belied a diligence and ethical seriousness that earned him the admiration of his colleagues. He first got here to nationwide prominence through the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, meticulously scuppering Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s manipulative appeals to US patriotism. Shortly, Mitchell’s fellow senators recognised his mastery of utilizing measured, rational logic slightly than inflammatory rhetoric.

As Mitchell recollects the arduous technique of bringing collectively all sides to debate peace in Northern Eire, he dissects his methods and philosophy – however by no means to bolster his personal legacy. His friends reward his humility, and certainly even when Mitchell will get considerably private — noting that a part of his curiosity in taking over the Northern Eire peace course of was that his father’s household had come from Eire — it’s talked about solely briefly earlier than shifting on to different issues.

Birney maps the trail to the Good Friday Settlement with out amplifying the suspense in synthetic methods. As a substitute, the movie turns into a examine within the nuts and bolts of diplomacy, which is never glamorous work. What turns into clear is that Mitchell possessed an unbelievable quantity of endurance and an innate means to sense when these fractious sides have been able to make a deal — to not point out a canny intuition to not push them too laborious too quick. The Negotiator wouldn’t be described as scintillating, however it lays out the obstacles, together with unpredictable waves of recent violence within the area, that would have destroyed the settlement earlier than it was finalised.

Removed from a complete overview, The Negotiator elides a number of significant chapters in Mitchell’s life. His aborted peace negotiations within the Center East are usually not talked about, neither is his first marriage. Greatest to view this documentary as Birney’s appreciation of a politician who insisted that violence was not the reply in Northern Eire — nor was empty sabre-rattling on the negotiation desk. Mitchell speaks softly, however the message resonates loudly.