We were expecting a lot from this biopic of Donald Trump's early years, an acerbic, no-holds-barred critique of the life of this young New York entrepreneur, years before he became the showman and president of the world's greatest power. We believed it, and in the end...
Ali Abbasi'sThe Apprentice, presented in official competition at the Cannes 2024 Film Festival, may paint a less than glowing portrait of the man with the golden hair and sun-kissed skin, but it's a far cry from the pillorying of this private and public figure that we were hoping for, in this year of American presidential elections, and even as the first criminal trial of the former US president is taking place in New York.
Nevertheless, Sebastian Stan 's restrained performance is to be commended, and his perfectly mimicked verbal tics ('it's great', 'you're a loser') and physical tics (the famous hen's ass mouth) could well earn him the festival's Best Actor award. The documentary st aging and 80's grain of the image immerse us in this varnished era.
Ali Abbasi 's idea was not to caricature in the manner of Saturday Night Live, where Trump is regularly ridiculed, particularly by Alec Baldwin, but to understand the origin of this excessive personality. And to a lesser extent, it does this rather well. We discover, for example, young Donald being sucked dry at the dinner table by his father, who makes no secret of his disappointment with his sons' career choices; or being forced to collect social housing rents forhis father's real estate empire.
The film begins in 1973. At the time, Trump Sr. was being sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against black people in his public housing. Donald Trump was 27 years old and had dreams of grandeur, in a New York that was not yet the one we know today. He planned to rehabilitate the Commodore, the future Trump Tower, which would be inaugurated a few years later to great fanfare and in the presence of the biggest stars of the day.
As a novice, he meets a man who will change his life,lawyer Roy Cohn, and the film sets out to unravel this relationship of power, first on one side, then on the other. The man, her mentor, will teach her the tricks of the trade, and Jeremy Strong's performance manages to catch a glimmer of humanity in the eyes of this diabolical man - the final scene on his birthday is particularly harsh. In reality, Ali Abbasi shoots his biopic like a mob movie, where the values of loyalty, power and betrayal are paramount, and where scheming and the like go hand in hand.
Portrayed as he is - narcissistic, aggressive towards women, especially his first wife Ivana - Donald Trump' s portrait is full of contrast, but too hesitant, and would have benefited from a more frontal attack on his subject.
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