The polarizing show “The Apprentice” fashions a tale of a Frankenstein creation of Donald Trump, which raises eyebrows, just like Mary Shelley’s classic tale. But in this case, who is the good doctor? It is none other than Roy Cohn, with help from the nasty Fred Trump, who created his monster.
This film directed by Ali Abbasi is divided into two parts: for the first hour, we go back to the 1970s when a very young, slightly innocent Trump (Sebastian Stan) is practically mentored by an aggressive manipulator in Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Then we jump forward a decade to a point in time where Trump has perfected her dark arts of a career monopolized by corruption and amoral actions–a theme he will stick to his entire life. The first half has a fascinating premise and is quite well-written, whereas the second half is a total mess from lack of POV or much to say about its subject since it is yet again non-existent in its execution. All of what is known about Trump according to author Gabriel Sherman is some muddled forest where anecdotes and character traits are dropped like Easter eggs in a Marvel comic book, turning it into a fiasco reminiscent of Cabaret. All the way, however, the actors manage to keep their heads above water because “Are we really saying that the central message of The Apprentice is that there is no answer to this man other than pure capitalism and the greed that comes with it?” though simplistic is unsatisfactory.
Sherman is a born journalist. He convinces his team in the sections of the film where it feels like “The Apprentice” that he has brought his extensive knowledge about New York’s political and real estate scene back into the 1970s, and this period is the pinnacle of the movie. Director Stan portrays young Trump as a person who is developing self-assurance as he seeks assistance advancing with Strong’s Roy Cohn to the lavatory to discuss financing the development of Trump’s storied 42nd Street hotel, regardless of property taxes. Cohn is portrayed by Strong as a shark often surrounded by fishes but he also portrays that Cohn knew that he could shape young Donald. He often embodies for the future president three business principles which he then restates himself at The Art of the Deal:
These business and political techniques are easy to locate in the life of Cohn and Trump, but it’s amusing to watch the seeds and the young version of him being nurtured. Although it is poorly substantiated in the screenplay, it can be argued that there are other areas in his life besides the office where he applies these three beliefs: the home with kids, and wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) who he recently met. The Oscar-nominated actress playing the role of a sequel to “Borat” performs too less in the scenes that she has, slamming the depiction of Ivana as a two- dimensional trophy wife which the media always shaped the character in the 1980s.
It is just when “The Apprentice” appears to pick up some steam that it leaps to the mid-’80s where we catch another Trump and Cohn, only this time he is on the rise as a shining symbol of Reagan-era business and about to open the Trump Tower. What is hard to comprehend is why Sherman and Abbasi simply use a time jump over an important aspect of someone they clearly consider to be a terrible person. It is as if one moves from the prologue of a book to the conclusion, making one piece together the pieces of the book in these two very crucial sections. What seems to be the connotation is that, now, Cohn is in a position similar to Trump’s when he watched his one time teacher and partner writer make himself worthless in a world with no place for a simple business lawyer. The thought that it is perfectly alright for someone like Cohn to stare at the disaster he has unleashed and destroy our sense of right and wrong makes little sense.
The comic book feel of the film becomes exaggerated, especially in the second half, as performance and plot indulge in cheap laughs and cheesy lines throughout for the most part with bolder themes in the film – Cohn and Trump’s interactions being the most striking – going largely unexplored. We hear the slogans from MAGA, and there’s even a scene of Stan shouting the term “loser,” and yes, the impersonation by Alec Baldwin on SNL comes to mind quite a few times, if only temporarily. Even the greater one starts losing weight; statements such as “You have to be ruthless in order to win” seem too simplistic in the context of Trump’s universal and multifaceted complexities. There’s a huge number of people who are ready to lose everything in order to claim the ultimate prize. But they are not all Trump.
The developments in the final session of “The Apprentice” appear specifically engineered to soothe any irritation from the banality of the preceding two hours, in fact stating that there is no proper conclusion how the present situation could have come to this. A young ambitious businessman, searching for a father’s figure somewhere else, met Roy Cohn, and that changed the course of history. That’s about it. It feels like something that could better work in a book, where the author would not only be deep character development, but also be able to detail the gaps between the 70s and 80s versions of the future President. As such, the film’s central focus often finds itself in the awkward position of having neither knowing what to say about its subject westaging, to say the least, of what we should do with him. And to put the whole thing this way, “Well, this is how this guy was”–is quite feeble, one would argue.
Is it satire about the American Dream, a horror story about how the dream has turned into a nightmare, or a comedy about an idiot who just happened to be in the right place at the right time? It appears reluctant to truly address these matters, preferring to take pot shots at capitalism, politics, family, and marriage rather than initiating complex debates. Perhaps there has been too much said about Donald Trump in a span of two hours of film. I get the impression that there are, and will be, more than this one such effort towards solving the Trump puzzle.
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