1 star
Someday in the future, a talented filmmaker will make a meaningful biopic about Donald Trump and his impact, good and bad, on American life and culture as a real estate mogul, a reality TV series host, and the 45th President of the United States.
The Apprentice is not that movie. Directed by Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider), it’s the supermarket tabloid version of the Trump story, focusing on his rise to the top of the New York real estate game in the 1970s and 1980s. The first part covers the young/dumb Donald nursing at the teat of controversial right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, known for his part in the 1950s Blacklisting scandal and the espionage trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg that lead to their executions. As played by Jeremy Strong (Succession), Cohn is a diabolical, foul-mouthed maniac who will stop at nothing to preserve the wealthy, white, conservative way of life. He meets Donald in the men’s room of an exclusive private club, and the pair form a bond that will eventually change the world.
Strong is a force of nature in the film’s first half, making every word Cohn says sound like a proclamation from the Mount. You immediately understand why people listen when Cohn talks, even as he spouts the most vile trash you can imagine. Watching Trump, played by Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), worship at the feet of Cohn is creepy, in large part because the lessons he learns drinking from his poison cup are the behaviors and beliefs Trump has used as a basis to become the person who became President. “You create your own reality,” Cohn tells Trump. “Truth is a malleable thing.”
As powerful as his presence is in the first part of the film, Cohn’s role and Strong’s performance get lost in the rest of the story. While that may illustrate the mentor’s weakening influence over his young protegee, Cohn’s transition from roaring monster standing center stage to wasting wraith hovering in the background is too abrupt and underdeveloped. Yes, he’s a very sick man – Cohn died of AIDS in 1986 – and the film does what it can to put a spotlight on the disease that killed him. But there are too many scenes with a ghostly Cohn standing beside or behind Turmo, just standing there with his mouth open. It’s distracting, given the overpowering nature of the character that charmed/repulsed us so convincingly. We stare at Cohn/Stan waiting for them to say something, and lose the thread of what’s happening in the scene.
Of course, one of the stumbling blocks to a film like The Apprentice is that audiences can’t watch it without bringing their personal feelings about Donald Trump into the movie. It’s less of a problem in the film’s first half when Trumo is in his fledgling phase. Still, even then, he’s either a naive and sympathetic character learning the truth about the world or a megalomaniac sharpening his skills, waiting for the day when he can use them against anyone who stands in his way. For the most part, Abbassi balances the two sides in depicting Trunmp’s apprenticeship with Cohn. Once that apprenticeship is over, though, the gloves come off.
Although the action of The Apprentice takes place long before Trump was even a TV personality, let alone POTUS, Abbassi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman (Independence Day: Resurgence) make no bones about their feelings for the man as he was and as he would become. It’s almost as though their storyboard consisted of the points they wanted to make instead of a story. There’s a scene where Trump is interrupted on a tour of one of his latest projects by a couple of contractors demanding that he pay his bills. It’s one of the legacies of the man from long before he was elected: he doesn’t pay his bills, and if you come after him for what is rightfully yours, he will tie you up in the courts until you’re broke. So it’s kind of exciting to see the movie bring it up, then incredibly disappointing to realize that’s all Abbassi and Sherman are able to do. It’s a flashcard moment meant to rile up those who already know this is Trump’s M.O., but it offers no further insight. The same goes for one of the more absurd insecurities of Donald J. Trump: his orange complexion. The script has his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), tell him it’s one of the problems people have about him but doesn’t let us know why – or how – he does it. It’s a cheap shot that is only there to provoke.
Abbassi and Sherman aren’t so shy about Trump’s obsession with his hair. They had Stan constantly patting and petting his character’s wig to underscore Trump’s feelings about his golden locks, which is an effective way to set the stage about how maniacal the man is about his thinning mane. They step over the line, though, when his obsession turns violent during an argument with Ivana. In a heartfelt attempt to rekindle the passion of their married life, Ivana puts on a slinky negligee. She presents her husband with a copy of Alics Kahn Ladas’ seminal book of the 1980s, The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries about Human Sexuality, hoping he will take the hint. Instead, he uses the intimate moment to tell her he no longer feels anything for her. They start to fight, hurling hateful insults at each other, but when she tells him that everyone knows he’s going bald, something snaps inside Trump, and he knocks Ivana down and brutally rapes her. It’s a sickening scene on so many levels, made worse because there are no consequences.
By the time The Apprentice is over, ending with a surreal scene of Donald J. Trump on an operating table getting the fat sucked out of his stomach and his bald spot surgically removed, and his head stapled closed, audiences on either side of the political aisle will have had their fill of the man they worship or vilify. They’ll also have plenty of “facts” from the film to prove their point of view, with some of the same scenes being used on both sides to prove their “right.” Those going to The Apprentice able to set aside their preconceived notions, or just looking for a good film to see, will leave unsatisfied. It’s to slap-dash an effort to work as a movie on that level.
And just for some perspective, as the final credits roll, remember that the events in The Apprentice take place long before Trump sat down with journalist Tony Schwartz to put together the New York Times best-seller, The Art of the Deal, the book that helped create the legend of Donald Trump on a global level. Trump’s 10-season reign as a TV celebrity on the reality show The Apprentice started 17 years after that book came out. Before that show ended, it ran in various formats across fifteen seasons on NBC from 2004 to 2017, Trump took the oath of office as president in 2016.
