Content Advisory: Rape and Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Abuse, Suicide, Needles or drug addiction, Substance abuse or alcoholism, Graphic sexuality or pornography, Homophobia
Donald Trump‘s rise during the 1970s and 1980s is dramatized in The Apprentice. In the 1970s, Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is a young real estate upstart working for his father Fred (Martin Donovan). After getting into an exclusive club, Trump catches the eye of cutthroat lawyer Ray Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who takes Trump under his wing and teaches him the three rules of being a winner: Rule 1) Attack. Attack. Attack; Rule 2) Admit nothing. Deny everything; Rule 3) Claim victory and never admit defeat.
Taking Ray’s advice into stride becomes a real estate force in New York City, as he builds the hotels the Grand Hyatt and Trump Tower. Against Ray Cohn’s wishes, Trump seduces and marries Czech model Ivana Zelnickova (Maria Bakalova), who’s not happy when Ray makes her sign a prenup. Trump’s success soon gets to his head, affecting his relationships with both Ivana and Ray.
The Apprentice Synopsis
The Apprentice is a completely unauthorized biopic about the early years of Donald Trump directed by Ali Abbasi (Border, Holy Spider) and written by Gabriel Sherman (Independence Day: Resurgence). In his second recent role requiring heavy prosthetics, Sebastian Stan (A Different Man) stars as a young Donald Trump, who is taken under the wing by lawyer Ray Cohn, excellently played by Jeremy Strong (Succession, The Big Short). Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Bodies Bodies Bodies) co-stars as Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana, who would continue to appear in public with him, even as their relationship began to disintegrate.
Not coincidently taking the title of the reality TV series Donald Trump was the host of, the main focus of the narrative of The Apprentice is Trump’s evolving relationship with his mentor Ray Cohn. As Trump begins becoming a successful real estate tycoon, he ends up portraying himself as a self-made man and repeating Ray’s advice as his own. While Trump rises, Ray has a fall from grace with the closeted gay man eventually being diagnosed with AIDS.
My Thoughts on The Apprentice
While it can be easy for Trump supporters to call The Apprentice a hit piece, director Ali Abbasi tries to remain objective in telling the future US President’s story and there are even moments in the film where Trump is depicted in a sympathetic light, as a man who ended up being corrupted by Ray Cohn. However, The Apprentice still ends up essentially being a villain origin story, as Trump turns into a man who viciously rapes Ivana after telling her he no longer loves her and would proceed to disinfect everything in his house, after a late-film visit by an AIDS-diagnosed Ray Coen.
As one of my major criticisms of the film, I’m singling out the rape of Ivana as an event that The Apprentice did not need to include and it can be seen as an example of sexual assault being used as a plot device. Even if rooted in reality, it is something that could have been inferred rather than outright shown. I also have to say that Sebastian Stan ends up falling into parody as the film goes on and he begins speaking in the nonsense ramblings that Trump is these days made fun of for.
If there is a reason to go see The Apprentice it is instead for the performance of Jeremy Strong as Ray Cohn. Having made waves in recent years for his starring role on HBO’s Succession, Strong gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Cohn, who evolves from a cutthroat scumbag lawyer, responsible for making Trump the man he becomes, to being an incredibly sympathetic closeted gay man, who finds himself having his back turned on by Trump after Coen gets diagnosed with AIDS. In addition, while her character does get reduced to eye-candy after the aforementioned rape scene, Maria Bakalova does leave an impression with her performance as Ivana Trump, which in some ways sees her career come full circle, as her breakthrough in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm had her in a very compromising situation with then Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
When it comes down to it, The Apprentice is probably not a film that will change people’s opinions about Donald Trump. However, the film is an interesting character study, suggesting that a man like Trump is not born but made. That said, I would have preferred if the sole focus of the film be Jeremy Strong’s excellent performance as Ray Cohn, as opposed to Sebastian Stan’s increasingly parody-like performance.