The Apprentice * * * * ½

Tell him I'll sue him for this review.

As far as a dramatisation of someones life goes this is probably the best I have seen since Steve Jobs. 

It's about the ascension of Donald Trump over twenty years through the seventies and eighties and into the nineties. 

No one was of more help to Trump than lawyer Roy Cohn. He was his mentor and guide (thus the title), and the film is primarily about their relationship. 

Cohn himself was an appalling man, but other than championing Joe Mccarthy, he didn't go into politics (fortunately!).  But as a lawyer he had a belief that in every case which he took on he was fighting for his country. When representing corporate thugs, cheats and tax dodgers he honestly believed he was fighting for the American way.  

Cohn agreed to represent Trump in an unwinnable case and he won - not in the courtroom, but with blackmail and threats.  "Attack, attack, attack, never back down and never admit defeat" was his motto.  "Oh!" says the young Trump, "I get it". 

Both the lead actors - Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn - give outstanding performances.  It's directed by Ali Abbasi.  The last film I saw of his was the excellent Border.

It's a very tight script and it moves at a cracking pace. Whether you find Donald Trump contemptible or whether you find his tax-evasion, manipulation and vengefulness heroic (weirdly, some do) you will enjoy the ride. Strangely, despite their moral turpitude, the affection between these two is quite touching especially when Cohn is ailing. 

There are many scenes that give us insight into how Trump developed his "values", along with his constant need for one upmanship, but they are delivered naturally without laboring the point.  The opening of Trump Tower where Donald Trump delights in telling those that helped him up - his father and Cohn - that their achievements are inferior to his is own is especially good.

I was amazed at some of the uncompromising scenes: Trump raping his own wife, getting oral sex from a prostitute, becoming addicted to pills, getting liposuction, trying to cheat his father and the rest of the family by altering the family trust, turning away his alcoholic elder brother in his greatest time of need. It's no wonder his election team are seeking an injunction on this film.

The Apprentice doesn't judge its subject, neither does it hide his crimes, and it doesn't take away from his achievements and fortitude either. Like it or not, success is still success even when absent of honour. Yes, it's a dramatisation, but it's not skewed so that the antihero gets his comeuppance; nor does he come to a moral epiphany.

Who knows? Perhaps Trump's ego is so big he might even like it. I'm sure you will. 

Whatever you think of Donald Trump and his mentor Roy Cohn, The Apprentice is a very good film.