The Apprentice - Film Review

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Director Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice is a fascinating biopic which traces Donald Trump's formative years in New York City in the 1970s and 80s. At the time, Trump is emerging from the shadow of the family real estate business and the film contends that Trump's rise is largely thanks to Roy Cohn, an abrasive lawyer and political fixer who became the future president's mentor. The Apprentice makes much of the Cohn and Trump relationship, relating it through an engaging and dramatic story.



Sebastian Stan plays the young Donald Trump and does so well. The physical resemblance is a stretch, but the speech – that distinct and self-assured manner of speaking Trump has – he gets right. When the film starts, Trump is merely a lackey in the family business, collecting the rent in buildings his father owns. And here we're almost sympathetic towards him. But that feeling doesn't last long. Trump's other duties include fending off a lawsuit which alleges (correctly) that father Fred Trump refused to rent apartments to people of colour.

While trying to fix his father's messes and emerge as an independent player, Trump meets Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong), a powerful and corrupt lawyer with connections inside conservative politics. Cohn is a complicated man: a closeted gay libertarian with a deeply patriotic streak. Despite some early reluctance, Cohn takes to Trump, first representing the Trumps in their fight against the government and later becoming Donald's main advisor.

Trump has a grand plan to renovate the Commodore Hotel, a dilapidated building in the heart of Manhattan hamstrung by its location in a rundown neighbourhood. Trump's plan is grand because it's unworkable: there is no way to make a profit unless New York City forgoes taxes on the property. Enter Cohn, who underhandedly gets Trump what he wants, setting Trump on his path to success.

It's here that the tone of the film changes and the fairly neutral treatment of an on-the-make young businessman morphs into a more cynical look at Trump's often shockingly bad behaviour. We see his courtship and later the breakdown of his relationship with first wife Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova). We see his affairs. We see his brother's alcoholism and Trump's seeming indifference to it. We see, ultimately, Trump break free of Cohn, as Trump becomes more powerful and more famous, all as Cohn's star fades.

Whatever you think of its subject, The Apprentice is a stylish film, capturing well the gritty New York streets of the time through old footage and grainy cinematography. The acting is strong, anchored by Sebastian Stan's cool and steely-eyed portrayal of the young Donald. Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn is also captivating to watch, playing a character even crazier and harder to figure out than Trump.

What Trump ultimately became looms over things heavily here. Does The Apprentice shed any light on what Trump ended up like? It certainly thinks it does, emphasising the connections between Roy Cohn's worldview and the things that come out of Trump's mouth now. But as with anything to do with Trump, where the truth begins and ends is anyone's guess.

The Apprentice is in cinemas October 10.

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