Review: ‘The Apprentice’ is insubstantial in light of current events

Everyone is comprised of their experiences, for better or worse. They effect actions and reactions, decision-making, opinions, outlooks, and anything else you may think of on any given day. Similarly, influential people in one’s life may mold those thoughts to match or parallel their own, shaping the person you become before forging your own path. Most people’s origin stories are not usually exciting or newsworthy, but still become a source of curiosity when related to public figures. The Apprentice recounts one of the early chapters in Donald Trump’s life, imagining inspirations for the man he is today.

Trump (Sebastian Stan) was the son of a wealthy real estate mogul, inheriting the throne when his older brother opted for a pilot’s career and eventually succumbed to alcoholism. Taking it upon himself to clear up the family’s legal troubles with one of their tenements, he recruits infamous attorney, Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), to represent the company and resolve the issue by any means necessary. Thus, Trump earns his father’s respect and the opportunity to realize his dream: building Trump Tower in New York City. Cohn took Trump under his wing to some degree, schooling him in cutthroat tactics and ruthless philosophies, producing a callous, greedy businessman with little regard for humanity.

The film follows the start of Trump’s real estate business in the 1970s and ‘80s. One of the picture’s opening scenes shows him driving his Cadillac to one of his father’s low-income apartment buildings to collect rent from overdue tenants. He’s clearly uncomfortable, likely with both the task and the lowly state of the clientele. Yet, pre-Cohn he displays a sense of compassion that conflicts with his ambition. Trump makes relentless romantic gestures to woo his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), with whom he’s immediately smitten. Although she eventually agrees to marry him, she proves shrewd in her review of their obligatory pre-nup. Some time after the birth of Don Jr., he claims to not even be attracted to her anymore — even though the woman he takes up with shares many of her physical traits.

Stan and Strong deliver unnervingly convincing performances. Strong portrays a man who made great efforts to exude unwavering strength and machismo, in spite of concealing his homosexuality, which could have destroyed his career. His character is brash and forthright, though time and illness would allow Trump to surpass his callousness. Stan not only captures Trump’s former appearance, but his personality that evolves from reserved determination to boisterous greed with the latter having a direct correlation on the level of compassion he shows others.

Director Ali Abbasi tries to dissect Trump’s origins, but his time in the public eye has made people all too familiar with his values and slogans. Whether his beliefs were imparted to him by Cohn, his father or some other source is of little concern as his actions have spoken louder than his endless stream of rants and tweets. Idioms about declaring you’ve won even when you haven’t and always going on the attack foretell the strategies he employed in his presidency and beyond. But overall, the picture is a shallow attempt to understand a man who literally plays by his own rules.

Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova