What more is there to know about Donald Trump, one of the most publicised men of the last century? In Ali Abbasi’s biopic, so intentionally grubby you may well feel in need of a shower afterwards, the answer is perhaps: not a lot. But if this film is hardly revelatory, it finds an absorbing narrative in the opposing fortunes of Trump and his mentor, Roy Cohn, anchored by two of the best performances of the year.
In the opening scenes, in seedy, shabby 1970s Manhattan, Trump (Sebastian Stan) encounters Cohn (Jeremy Strong) at a restaurant frequented by the pea-cocking elite (Cohn) and those who crave their favour (Trump). Cohn is a pitiless lawyer, notorious for a total lack of morals and skill for amassing dirty secrets. Trump is a glorified rent-collector for his father’s low-grade property empire, with ambitions to bring back New York’s lost glamour by building gaudy hotels.
It’s grimly enthralling watching Trump overtake his mentor.
Trump hires Cohn to defend him and his father in a legal case they’ve seemingly no chance of winning. After securing victory, with a little light blackmail, Cohn declines payment, instead suggesting he and Trump look out for each other’s interests. Such arrangements with the easily compromised have made Cohn one of the most powerful people in New York. His mistake in this dark bargain is assuming Trump is the Faust of the situation. Over the years, he’ll learn it is he who got played.
It’s this that lifts The Apprentice above opportunistic biopic. It’s grimly enthralling watching Trump overtake his mentor, a man of seemingly unbeatable avarice. Trump’s skill is in seeing where the world is going and changing to exploit it. Cohn’s weakness is in thinking he can control it. Stan is superb as Trump, building layers of oddness as Trump disappears into the character he’s constructed for the public. Strong is unnerving as Cohn, a man who looks like he’s had the soul sucked from him. His face is inexpressive, but the ceaseless thoughts are visible behind the eyes, both as he plots against the world and as it dawns on him that his will not be a glorious end.
For the film’s first half, Trump’s career ascent/moral descent is confidently paced, almost like a thriller. It’s a shame that in its latter stages Abbasi gives in to the temptation to make cheap, apparently headline-baiting jabs. Mocking Trump’s weight and hair insecurity may be fun, but it’s a lot of screentime for not a great deal of insight. And a highly publicised marital-rape scene sits jarringly in an otherwise broad-strokes look at his first marriage to Ivana (a great Maria Bakalova). Whether based in fact or not — Trump, unsurprisingly, has threatened legal action — the inclusion of something so shocking feels out of kilter with the tone established. This may be a film about a guy who’ll do anything for attention, but The Apprentice is clever enough to succeed without doing the same.
