Visual appeal but not much to say
Muse Films
For “Melania,” Amazon MGM Studios spent $75 million to bring us what can at best be called a smug, self-aggrandizing video diary. Of that money, only an estimated $5 million was spent on the production. The initial $40 million payment was a license fee for the film and a ‘docu-series’ to run later, of which, Melania Trump reportedly received $28 million, with another $35 million being spent on marketing —i.e., the ad campaign we had to suffer through during the Patriots playoff run. Considering it’s arguably the most expensive documentary ever made, is it any good?
The answer is a qualified “meh.”
The film, a meandering recap of 20 days in the life of Melania Trump leading up to Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration in January of 2025, serves as something of a freakish cultural time capsule and an intriguing bit of social commentary—as much for what it says as for what it doesn’t.
Overall, it’s watchable, regardless of your political persuasion. A typical Cantabrigian Blue State voter will likely be agog by what’s pretty much soft-core MAGA porn, while I imagine, Red State purists will relish it as a sip from the trough of FLOTUS hagiography.
The hand behind the middling effort is Brett Ratner, who directed the “Rush Hour” films and produced “The Revenant” but basically hasn’t had a Hollywood payday since 2017, when several women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, accused him of sexual assault and sexual harassment. He’s also recently been linked to Jeffery Epstein. Ratner wouldn’t be the person I’d pick to make a movie about my wife, but Trump reportedly loves the “Rush Hour” films.
And the film actually looks great. The up-angle shots of Trump Tower and St. Patrick’s Cathedral are breathtaking, as are the aerial shots of the White House and Mar-a-Lago.
For the early part of the film, we embed with Melania as she busies herself planning the inauguration gala. It’s a relatively dull affair made slightly amusing as Ratner cannot get Melania, her support staff or vendors to be themselves. They’re too aware of the camera, staring into it like panicked deer and then awkwardly looking away. It plays out like a stilted YouTube video on how to plan a ball.
We don’t hear or see Donald Trump until nearly halfway through the film, when he calls Melania to brag about winning the election in a landslide (of course the first thing he says is a lie). Gossip-minded folk will relish the chat, speculating on what it means that Trump and his wife talk past each other as if they can’t hear what the other is saying.
We also can glean that she’s not a stepmother with a strong relationship with her stepchildren. We see a good chunk of Barron, the son she and Trump had together, though he doesn’t say much. The rest of Trump’s progeny are relegated to the outer edge of the frame—if that.
For a movie named for her, we see little of who Melania really is. We hear her in disembodied voice-overs, spouting postured platitudes about freedom, respect and individual rights. Her past is relegated to a matter-of-fact line about immigrating to the US from Slovenia, which makes one pause and wonder that if Minneapolis were a haven for Slovenians instead of Somalians maybe it wouldn’t be experiencing paramilitary mayhem bordering on civil war.
We also see her chummy convos about foster children care with Queen Rania of Jordan, and a video chat with Brigitte Macron pushing her initiative to keep kids off cellphones until the age of eleven.
The Trumps obviously had extensive editorial control over what feels like a vanity project, yet the president often appears surprisingly listless as he’s shuffled through long corridors by a detachment of Secret Service agents while holding Melania’s hand. In these scenes, Melania moves with the grace of a mannequin.
One moment of actual emotional engagement comes when Melania receives Aviva Siegel, an Israeli and former Hamas hostage, who implores the soon-to-be First Lady to use her influence to help free her husband Keith, who at the time remained in Hamas custody. The scene bears obvious poignance, but at the same time it casts a weird vibe, as if Siegel is being exploited.
Throughout the film, we’re given recurring close-ups of Melania’s stilettos, a collection that would have made Imelda Marcos green. I found these strangely riveting.
The soundtrack holds strange significance too. It’s a near taunt to hear the Tears for Fears anthem “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” play as Donald readies for the transfer of power ceremonies. In one unintentionally ironic scene, Melania grooves in a limo to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” mouthing the lyric “the lie becomes the truth.” For all her stiff reserve, when the Village People’s “YMCA” blasts out during the inaugural ball, she dances well, subtly shimmying.
Amazon made sure the documentary got impressive distribution, opening in 1,778 theaters screens around the country. The Boston Globe and others forecasted empty theaters, but “Melania” did better than expected, bringing in $7 million in ticket sales, best for a non-music-related documentary since 2012’s “The Chimpanzee.” At the early Friday screening I attended (because the film was not screened for the press), the theater was about 25% occupied, which is pretty good for a mid-day screening. Pre-sales at AMC Assembly Row 12 showed about 20 seats sold for each of the first three screenings that day, in a theater that seats about 70. There were rumors online that people were being paid to go see the movie, another of the conspiracy theories around it, like Amazon and Jeff Bezos paid all that money to curry favor with the president or even because they were extorted. (It’s not the first time Bezos has been accused of bending the knee to Trump, like when the Washington Post, which he also owns, famously decided not to endorse a presidential candidate during the 2024 election, presumably because he didn’t want it to endorse Kamala Harris.)
Conspiracy theorists will dig this: IMDb, also owned by Amazon, seems to have blocked “Melania” reviews on the site. That’s unprecedented in my experience as a film critic. IMDb is allowing users to rate the film and at the time of this filing, “Melania” has a rating of 1.2, which would make it an all-time low, down there with “From Justin to Kelly” (2003).
The film ends with a carefully curated roll of the FLOTUS’s accomplishments to date, which includes the release of Keith Siegel. It’s a strange, needy framing that screams “this is what I do [for you] and who I am.” She is otherwise aloof and superficial. If you’re looking for insight into the woman who has stood by Donald J. Trump through two presidential campaigns, charges of sexual abuse and political corruption, you’ll need to keep looking. If you’re looking for a MAGA embrace, “Melania” is your happy place.
For What it's Worth 
Leave a comment