IT is fitting that The Apprentice appropriates the title of Donald Trump’s most popular television show as Ali Abbasi’s film is less about who Trump is now but rather how the US president of today was created through an “apprenticeship” with one of the country’s most notorious lawyers.
Set through the early 70s and up to late 80s, The Apprentice chronicles Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) rise from a modest landlord to becoming a real estate mogul under the tutelage of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer with ties to US president Richard Nixon.
The film covers a wide berth of events that transpired in the two decades, beginning with the racial discrimination lawsuit against Trump’s father’s real-estate business and his plans to take over the Commodore Hotel (now the Hyatt Grand Central New York).
As The Apprentice progresses, it details Trump’s relationship with his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova), the creation of Trump Tower, the death of Trump’s older brother Fred, the ghostwriting of his autobiography The Art of the Deal and Cohn’s mentorship that ends with his demise. It comes full circle with Trump appropriating what Cohn taught him as his own.
