Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
THE APPRENTICE
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Duration: 120min
In cinemas from October 10th
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Some of the more interesting aspects of the Donald Trump biopic, “The Apprentice” are around its funding and distribution. Unlike most US films it was largely financed by Irish and Danish organisations and none of the major distributors would touch the film, fearing the wrath of the ex-president. To fund the distribution of the film in the US the producers initially had to launch a Kickstarter fund before it was eventually picked up.
The film is directed by the award-winning Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and looks at the life of Donald Trump in the 1970’s and 1980’s as he made his first moves into the New York real estate business.
It’s in two parts with the first set in the seventies when Trump is just starting out, working for his father as not much more than a rent collector as he embarks on his own career. The second part is set in the eighties when he is wielding more power and influence.
Along with Trump, the main protagonist is the influential attorney Roy Cohn who gained prominence for successfully prosecuting the American spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg leading to their execution in the early 1950’s.
He manipulated the legal system on behalf of powerful, conservative figures but lived as a closeted gay man, publicly denying his AIDS till the day he died.
Trump becomes the apprentice to Cohn as he assists him in his efforts to circumvent New York City planning restrictions to build Trump Tower and helps Trump amass wealth and power through deception, intimidation and media manipulation.
Cohn’s advice to Trump consisted of three simple rules.
Rule 1. Attack. Attack. Attack. Rule 2. Admit nothing. Deny everything. Rule 3. Claim victory and never admit defeat.
We see how these become the foundations of Trump’s later ways of dealing with individuals, organisations and the media, as President and in his present-day speeches and interviews.
Abbasi depicts Trump as something of a loner, often in the presence of other people but with no close friends. Even his family relationships are fraught notably with his “loser” brother Freddie who is only an international pilot and later a drug user who Trump won’t put up at his place.
The film does not completely vilify Trump and there are some sympathetic touches but it does show that he is a flawed character both from his upbringing as well as his relationship with Cohn and these experiences do nothing to make him more sympathetic towards other people.
Sebastain Stan cleverly displays many of the characteristics of the later Trump and we see how he is progressively imbues Cohn’s cynical view of people and the world – there to be taken advantage of.
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn presents an almost totally amoral character who apart from his three rules of getting ahead also reveals a disdain for weakness in others and a savagery in getting his own way.
Trump’s relationship with his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) and his father Fred (Martin Donovan) are loosely sketched in but they could well have been fleshed out a bit more to add depth to the psychological study of Trump but they do suggest aspects of his personal relationships and the need to dominate .
Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman has skilfully crafted Trumps ascent with his actual recorded dialogue, written words as well as some well devised dialogue.
New Zealand Arts Review 