This isn’t a shticky, broad comedy sketch. No, The Apprentice is a real film. A character study, and a thoughtful, historically accurate telling of how the brash young man from Queens came to be the talk of Manhattan—even if he was the one doing all the talking.
It really helps the viewer to understand who Attorney Roy Cohn was. Without the menacing, scandalized bully Cohn, there would be no Donald Trump as we know him today. Traits like never admitting defeat, scamming money from big fish while refusing to pay blue collar workers—so much of Trump’s being was formed in the 70s and 80s and it was he who was Cohn’s apprentice.
Actor Sebastian Stan, to his great credit, does not do an impersonation of Trump, no big blowhard stuff. Rather, Stan captures subtle mannerisms- the way Trump sort of curls both lips forward, for example. The film ends just as he is about to dictate his famous bestselling book to a ghost writer, The Art of the Deal, so we don’t see him as the orange, portly stooge with the long tie. We see a relatively handsome, cocky and ambitious dreamer.
We know that, historically, Trump was very much concerned with gaining his tough and rich father’s approval. And, in fact, there’s a brief moment where we realize that the student has become the master. Mission accomplished.
Not everything can be crammed into two hours, Ivana, Trump’s first wife is a minor character here, as are almost all members of the family, both extended and immediate. One can’t expect a day-by-day recounting of the mogul’s life, but along with a dead-on performance by Jeremy Strong (as Roy Cohn) we are given entry into the mind, such as it was, of the man whose name is now known at all.
The Apprentice | Rated R | 2 Hours |In Theaters October 11th.