The Apprentice is a well-made movie about a well-known man. It is also a movie about lawyers which, in real life, was delayed by legal action. Such real-life drama requires a reviewer to write with care.

The Apprentice is not about Donald Trump as a politician performing as a President. Nor is it about Trump as a TV host syndicating the art of the steal in shows like The Celebrity Apprentice.

Instead, The Apprentice is about Donald Trump’s years as a property developer. Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi illuminates Trump’s deals and debts through the 1970s and early 1980s in New York.

For a film about lawyers and developers, the movie generates a surprising amount of emotional intensity. Intensity comes through the contrasts. Amid the glitz and glamour of parties and new hotels, Sebastian Stan portrays Donald Trump as a man isolating himself from the frailties of dementia and the finality of death.

Intensity also comes through the characters. Jeremy Strong is superb as Roy Cohn, the lawyer whose three rules of vanity, ruthlessness and ego Trump, the developer, learns by heart. Maria Bakalova is magnificent as Trump’s first wife, Ivana, whose skills in interior design garner media attention. Trump’s withdrawal from these foundational relationships amplifies the significance of these people in growing Trump’s property portfolio.

Scenes of humour increase the movie’s emotional palette. At a party, Trump is portrayed as failing to recognise Andy Warhol. Later, Trump is given a “Make America Great Again” badge to acknowledge his support for another film star’s presidential campaign.

Alongside the humour, the movie also offers plenty of distaste. Trump ironically called the movie “classless.” A word like “culpable” might have been a better word to describe several scenes portraying Trump’s sex life.

Religion rarely makes an appearance, even as Trump’s empire expands from hotels into casinos. Psalm 23 is intoned as Trump’s brother is buried. Cinematically, the words feel more like ‘the done thing’ rather than meaningful expressions of faith. A more fruitful place for religious engagement lies in the movie’s title and the differences between being an apprentice and a follower.

Apprentices were common in the Roman world as a way for carpenters and tentmakers to learn from experienced crafters and gain access to social and professional networks. Given that apprentices were common, why did Jesus and Paul call Christians to be followers instead of apprentices? With a father as a carpenter, Jesus would have been aware of apprenticeships. Paul would have met countless apprentices as a tentmaker, even if the Bible is silent on whether he was apprenticed.

Yet amid a culture based on guilds of loyalty and networks of honour, Paul’s description of the Christians in Corinth as learning from many fathers is striking (1 Corinthians 4:15). In a patriarchal culture, Paul uses the plural to encourage a diversity of learning relationships. In networks demanding exclusive loyalty, Paul instructs the many fathers to live as servants of God.

Relationships of diversity, service and inclusion stand in stark contrast to the three rules of vanity, ruthlessness and ego that Trump, the apprentice, learns in the school of Roy Cohn.

Rev Dr Steve Taylor is the author of "First Expressions" (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.