The Plot: It’s the 1970s and Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is making his way in the world of property development, hounding residents for rent while looking to make connections with important people. He zeroes in on attack-dog lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who is ruthlessly efficient in the way he handles everyone including local New York and then federal representatives. Roy takes Donald under his wing, teaching him the attack-attack-attack approach that he lives by as a mantra. As Donald rises up the ranks, he pursues the glamorous Ivana (Maria Bakalova) while battling to avoid hefty property taxes as he builds Trump Tower…
The Verdict: “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should never see the light of day and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire.” noted the chief film critic at Donald Trump’s election campaign team. The film in question is the much-talked-about The Apprentice, which charts the early rise of Trump as a property developer in the 1970s and 1980s and his relationship with his no-nonsense lawyer. Trump was more characteristically subtle in his comments, labelling the filmmakers ‘human scum’ and the film itself as a ‘politically disgusting hatchet job’. With that kind of reaction from Trump and with the US election on 5th November looming ever closer, it must instantly be a film worth seeing… right? That would appear to be the case going into the film, but not necessarily coming out of it.
Much like the obsessive attention to its subject, The Apprentice is an odd kind of beast. Tackling a controversial figure like Trump is playing with fire for sure, but how does a filmmaker pin down a man who seems to be hard-to-ignore, no matter what you think of him? It’s a question that writer Gabriel Sherman and director Ali Abbasi wrestle with valiantly throughout their film, sometimes successfully but more often unsuccessfully in trying to find an answer. Maybe they’re suggesting that the answer is that there is no answer. The many faces of Trump are on display here: sometimes serious, lovesick and driving a hard deal through; other times he’s a buffoon and a Gordon Gekko wannabe in the decade that excess forgot. If greed is good here, then it’s the greed for power and always being right – even when you’re wrong.
That central relationship between Trump and Cohn is at the heart of the film, but it’s a black-hearted affair in which the apprentice has the power to turn on his master. Sebastian Stan (showing more range following A Different Man) and a rigidly focused, post-Succession Jeremy Strong do solid work in probing their characters and their front-facing armour for weaknesses. They’re both very talented actors, but the film doesn’t really deserve them. They’re often underserved by a script that pinballs around, not knowing how to interpret or even deal with key events. This is particularly evident with a controversial scene involving Ivana, based on an event described in her divorce deposition but which she later recanted. It’s like throwing a narrative hand grenade into the film and then running away without looking at the consequences. Abbasi has no interest in dealing with this scene’s aftermath, immediately getting back to business as if nothing had happened. It leaves a sour aftertaste that further undermines his film.
The Iranian Abbasi is a talented filmmaker, having made his mark with the oddball romance Border and then the mysterious serial killer thriller Holy Spider. With The Apprentice though, it’s evident that he’s bitten off more than he can chew here. There’s no faulting the cast or the production team, which includes some Irish interest given that it’s an international co-production that was partly financed and post-produced here in Ireland (American studios understandably wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole). The fault lies squarely in the script and the direction, never really getting under the skin of Trump and Cohn, keeping it surface level and vaguely cartoonish at times. The Apprentice is not so Top Trump when measured up against more considered biopics. It doesn’t belong in a dumpster fire, but neither is it a must-see film. It’s more of a maybe-see for the curious, but there’s not much else on offer here. It appears that The Donald need not worry that much after all.
Rating: 2 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: Not so Top Trump
Directed by Ali Abbasi.
Starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally.