Kuva: Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc., Profile Productions 2 Aps, Tailored Films Ltd.
The Apprentice tells the story of young Donald Trump’s rise to riches and the people he tramples on the way to his feet.
Premiere: 11 October 2024
Original title: The Apprentice
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Screenplay: Gabriel Sherman
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan & Charlie Carrick
Length: 122 minutes
Age limit: K12
Ex-President of the United States Donald Trump is a controversial figure to say the least. About him The Apprentice raises questions: why was this film made now, is it election propaganda one way or the other, a possible parody or perhaps a portrait to be taken seriously?
Ali Abbasin (Raja, Holy Spider) directed by and Gabriel Shermanin scripted The Apprentice tries to compartmentalize the last of them, although the authors’ political values are not left to guesswork either. The film takes a peek into the life of young Donald Trump and focuses on the ups and downs that would later define his career.
Despite its name, The Apprentice has nothing to do with the competition series of the same name that Donald Trump once hosted. The name refers to the apprentice – and in this case, how the apprentice displaces the master.
The Apprentice aims to portray the person behind the success and media presence, but despite the convincing acting performances, does not get deep enough in its subject. The focus of the film is how Donald Trump became the Donald Trump he is known as today.
Image: © Pief Weyman / Nordisk Film
Three rules for success
Set in the 1970s and 80s, The Apprentice initially introduces Donald Trump, oozing with youthful enthusiasm (Sebastian Stan), for whom success is everything. A little insecure, living in his father’s shadow, the young man is excited to have entered the men’s club as the youngest ever, but he doesn’t quite know what he would do with that success.
This changes when he meets lawyer Roy Cohn at the club (Jeremy Strong). Cohn takes the youngster under his wing and teaches him everything that is required on the road to success.
Nothing holds back that man known for his ruthlessness. Cohn has three rules for success: 1) Always attack, 2) Concede nothing but deny everything, and 3) Always claim victory and never admit defeat.
Trump also absorbs these rules.
With Cohn’s help, Trump gets up to speed in the New York real estate business and gets his flagship Trump Tower built in Manhattan. As success grows, the enthusiasm of youth turns into a greed that is restrained by nothing – and eventually no one.
Not even Mentor Cohn.
Kuva: © Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc., Profile Productions 2 Aps, Tailored Films Ltd.
No shame at all
The idea of The Apprentice taking a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most controversial people of our time sounds fascinating – whatever you think of Trump himself. However, Abbasi does not paint any kind of heroic story in his film, even if the ingredients for one are there.
After humanizing the beginning of his Trump, he leaves exactly what he is used to seeing in the media – a ruthless seeker of his own interests who does not value the people around him.
“Donald feels no shame at all”, says in the film Maria Bakalovan performed by Ivana Trump, and this phrase perfectly defines The Apprentice.
Despite this, the film remains somewhat superficial, and it would have needed more depth, more digging into details and cause-and-effect relationships. Arvaten’s creators have been limited here by the fact that the central character of their film is still alive, and still in a very influential position.
Kuva: © Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc., Profile Productions 2 Aps, Tailored Films Ltd.
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong shine
Sebastian Stan does a skillful job in the role of Trump. The actor, also known as a Marvel star, has internalized the way of speaking, facial expressions and gestures of his role model quite disturbingly well.
And what’s more, he doesn’t make a caricature of his character.
In Stan’s jumps, Trump believably transforms from an insecure youth to a self-centered and greedy man for whom everything else is useless but himself.
Equally convincing is Successionchanneling his role is Jeremy Strong, whose friend Cohn is at first a direct manifestation of pussiness. However, like Succession-Kendall, there are two sides to Strong’s Cohn, and beneath the ruthless shell begins to glimpse a beaten man. There is a steady pendulum movement between Trump and Cohn’s characters: when Trump’s horizontal cup rises, Cohn’s continues to fall at a steady pace.
When an apprentice becomes a master, that human wreck almost feels sorry for the even bigger asshole he trained.
THE APPRENTICE
“Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong do a convincing job as master and apprentice in Ali Abbasi’s shallow film about the life of young Donald Trump.”
Source: muropaketti.com
