The critically dividing and debatable “The Apprentice” adapts the life story of Donald Trump into a story that is similar to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. And guess who is the good doctor in the glass case? I’m sure you’ve already guessed, that it’s Roy Cohn, who also receives some help in creating his monster from the brutally savage Fred Trump.
In two broad brushstrokes, Director Ali Abassi’s film splits into the following chapters: in the first Trump (Sebastian Stan) is a young and mildly naïve business apprentice in the 70s. He learns the intricacies of the deal under the guidance of the ever-manipulative Cohn (Jeremy Strong). The rest of the film is set a decade later when Trump experiences the peak of unethical immorality, a stage he remains perpetually engrained in for the rest of his life. The first segment has a captivating premise and is rather well constructed, but the latter is devoid of a clear vision. Similarly, there is not much depth to its theme. Gabriel Sherman, the writer, knows too much about Trump, and like a Marvel writer relies on Easter eggs, and blends personality quirks and references which ultimately leave the whole exercise devoid of any wit. The performers manage to comprehend the role but “The Apprentice” suffers and drowns in the paradox of its own making “There’s no explanation for this guy beyond greed and capitalism.” Incredibly quick to dismiss.
Though Sherman is a journalist at heart, the scenes that resemble “The Apprentice,” where it seems Sherman’s knowledge about New York politics and real estate in the ‘70s is truly being brought to bear, are by far the most potent of the film. Stan imbues young Trump with what could only be called garnering confidence he is even prepared to catch Strong’s Roy Cohn into the lad’s room in order to wheedle him into building his famed hotel on 42nd Street (boff property taxes). Strong performs Cohn as a shark without schooling of fishes most of the time, but he equally depicts, and correctly, that he had something to work with in young Donald. Cohn is known to teach the future President three fundamental rules of life and business that have become his own in the course of writing The Art of the Deal and that he now teaches to every American entrepreneur he meets:
Observing business and political practices in Cohn and Trump’s life is straightforward, but it is captivating to witness how they are instilled in him. While the script is incomplete, some may say that he also begins to incorporate three of these values into his familiar and romantic relationships with a woman who catches his attention, Ivana (Maria Bakalova). Each of her few scenes is played to perfection as she portrays Ivana with such complexity rather than the shallow trophy wife that the press depicted her as in the ’80s. Bakalova, the Oscar-nominated actress in the sequel to Borat, certainly does justice to the role.
The Apprentice felt like it was to lift off, then lightning strikes the mid-1980s. A vastly different Reagan-er Trump was on the radar and the studio was on Trump’s plans to establish the tower. Cohn was starting to shine as a key figure in American Corporal Capitalism. I still can’t comprehend why Sherman and Abbasi simply skip the process of growing into something that they clearly believe is a monster. It honestly feels like reading the end of a book without knowing the prologue. Without context, it’s difficult for a reader to grasp the concept and connect such chapters in the book. The message that seems to be implied is, that while former supreme controlling partner Cohn watches his partner helplessly lose the battle to AIDS, Cohn starts to regret the ditch that has been formed between them. He finally understands that there’s no space for former allies in Trump’s life or the ever-rising capitalist beacon. The fact that people expect a monster like Cohen to feel empathy towards the horror he has manipulated people into, is highly moralistic and sadistic.
The latter part of the movie seems to be just a parade of cheap gags and unoriginal punch lines with regular hints towards the MAGA concept. At the same time, Baldwin’s Saturday Night Live impression of Trump captures Stan referring to the “loser” word. Everyone in this world who has money tends to have a shallow personality it is quite easy to explain Trump’s intricate character with the line “You have to be willing to do anything to win.” Not every person who is willing to do anything for victory turns into Trump now, do they? With the most genuine parts of the movie feeling at least a bit superficial, it is quite easy to wonder how we reached this point post-Cohn’s trump dynamic.
The Apprentice leaves some issues unresolved and it is flattened in the last two hours of the show only to be addressed through a perspective shift towards the end. A young real estate tycoon with an overbearing father finds the type of father he always wished for in Roy Cohn and the consequences change politics as we know it. And that’s all. It feels like books would handle details like this better because there is no better way to explain it other than, an attempt to fill in the details between the 70’s and 80’s versions of the man who is future president. But more often than not, the movie does not know what to say about this character, much less what to do with him at this point. And explaining it all away with, ‘Ah well, that’s just how it was’ is sloppy.
Is it a satire, a comedy, or maybe a nightmare of how the American Dream became a reality? I think it is all of the above. My only problem is that it fails to answer any of these questions as it has replaced serious conversations such as those around politics, capitalism, and marriage with easier arguments. In regards to the man himself, perhaps we do not have enough time to share everything that can be said about Donald Trump in a two-hour-long movie. But I do anticipate, or rather hope, that it will make more attempts to explain him.
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