Not much depth to ‘Trump’

As frothy and underwhelming as a decaf double latte, “Trump Unauthorized” is a breezy biopic charting the rise and fall of one of the icons of ‘80s overindulgence as he takes Manhattan like a demented Muppet, lets it all ride on Atlantic City and eventually reinvents himself as a TV star. Justin Louis plays Donald J. Trump as an unctuous, tenacious young man trying to deal his way out of the shadow of his successful developer father, Fred Sr. (Ron McLarty), who is skeptical of both his son’s means and his chances of succeeding.

Director John David Coles races through Keith Curran’s episodic script of the Donald’s greatest hits as if it were going to evaporate. Based on journalist Gwenda Blair’s biographies (“Donald Trump: Master Apprentice” and “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire”), the telepic’s blend of comedy and faux Shakespearean tragedy goes down easily enough, but it doesn’t really give us anything we don’t already know about the man who names his luxury hotels after himself.

Louis is spot-on, playing Trump as a cocksure idealist who dreams big and wouldn’t know self-doubt if it punched him in the nose. Even when overbearing or suffering from the result of his own follies, Louis’ Trump remains a charmer. Born in Queens, he quickly outgrows his father’s business and begins wheeling and dealing in Manhattan, a magical Oz for the driven young man. He doesn’t allow the city’s bankrupt mid-’70s economy to blunt the grandiosity of his cockeyed vision as he pursues one over-leveraged deal after another. The movie depicts Donald’s ascent from a brash, street-smart city kid to arrogant mogul as a tale of greed and hubris, but doesn’t attempt to impart any message along with it. He’s still the same old Donald at the end.

Much of the movie’s humor comes at the expense of Trump’s women. Initially, Donald is shown as a bit of a geek, rattling off the idiosyncrasies of the fire code and real estate stats as pickup lines until he meets his (first) bride-to-be, Czech skier-turned-model Ivana (Katheryn Winnick). Winnick, whose thick, sometimes impenetrable Central European accent seems to fall somewhere between the wild and crazy Festrunk brothers of early “Saturday Night Live” fame and the Gabor sisters, gives Ivana a screwball sensibility that allows her to ride roughshod over Donald. Contributing the Donald’s distinctive nickname and overseeing the interior design of her husband’s realm, Ivana comes off far better than her (first) successor.

Marla Maples (Jennifer Baxter) sashays into Trump’s life at a book signing for his bestseller, “The Art of the Deal.” When she gives her name, it’s like a punch line we’ve been waiting an hour and a half for. The self-described “dancer-slash-actress” and former flight attendant radiates the intelligence of a burnt-out light bulb but appeals to Donald as the antithesis of Ivana’s ambition. Where Ivana wants to run hotels and sees herself as the Donald’s partner and equal, Marla provides the non-threatening trophy wife Trump desires. “Trump Unauthorized” uses self-referential humor to its advantage -- as when the Donald claims “I don’t like firing people, I’ve never been comfortable with it” -- but lacks the audacity to risk being the all-out comedy the material demands. It has the uneasy flow of a heavily abridged audio-book.

*

‘Trump Unauthorized’

Where: ABC

When: 9-11 tonight

Ratings: TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for coarse language)

Justin Louis...Donald Trump

Katheryn Winnick...Ivana Trump

Saul Rubinek...Peter Wenik

Jennifer Baxter...Marla Maples

Ron McLarty...Fred Trump Sr.

Executive producers Barbara Lieberman, Dan Lux, Vin Di Bona. Director John David Coles. Teleplay Keith Curran.