MELANIA Reviewed by GREG KING
Documentary
Director: Brett Ratner
Stars: Melania Trump
I watched the feature length documentary Melania so you don’t have to! This is easily one of the most controversial, hyped and polarising films of the year! And it’s only February!
A lot of overseas reports filtering through social media were remarking on empty theatres and a lack of ticket sales. The session I attended was reasonably well attended. 11 am on a Tuesday morning. There were 16 other people in the 50-seat auditorium. Most of them were middle aged women, although a couple had brought along their male partners. Not sure whether it was from genuine interest or curiosity.
What we got was a vapid hagiography, a glossy looking but impersonal and bland puff piece aimed at softening the image of Melania Trump, and subsequently her husband, for public consumption. Melania is credited as producer of this vanity project, so we were never going to get anything too controversial, negative or revelatory. There is little depth or insight to be found across the 104-minute running time. In fact, Melania barely qualifies as a documentary!
There is probably a fascinating documentary to be made exploring how a Slovenian model finds her way to America, the land of opportunity, and marries a New York real estate developer and becomes the First Lady of the United States. But this is not that film!
This film follows Melania Trump during the 20 days leading up to the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025 although there seems to be a distinct lack of drama and tension. We get a lot of footage of Melania discussing and arranging the outfit she will wear on the important day; discussing the aesthetics of the glass ware and place settings for the Inauguration reception. And there is plenty of footage of her walking from here to there in her stiletto heels; being driven from here to there in sleek black SUVs; and even flying back and forth in the Trump private jet – all the while actually achieving little.
It was a big mistake on the part of the producers to have Melania narrate her own film – at times her thick accent is almost impenetrable. She does offer up some banal homilies though that sound the right note as she talks about optimism for the future, unity, and even has a few positive things to say about immigrants (which contrasts markedly with the horrible rhetoric from her husband – “the people who came in, they’re eating the pets!”) But there was no context or further commentary about this moment, which an authentic documentary would have drawn attention to in some fashion.
However, there are some brief moments that may be of interest for the more curious – we get a glimpse inside the Trump’s lavishly appointed, ornate and gaudily glittering New York apartment in Trump Tower as well as scenes shot inside Mar-A-Lago; we also get some views of the interior of the White House as it looked before Trump trashed it with his tacky gold filigree decorations. There is also plenty of pomp and circumstance with the arcane rituals of the Inauguration itself and lots of celebratory backslapping from sycophantic crowds.
The film does have a decent soundtrack, with cuts from The Rolling Stones, Tears For Fears, Spandau Ballet and Michael Jackson. I’m still trying to figure out if the use of Gimme Shelter that accompanies our first glimpse of Melania Trump emerging from a building was unintentionally ironic or a deliberate choice by the filmmakers.
The production is also something of a sop for disgraced director Brett Ratner (best known for the Rush Hour trilogy of action comedies) whose Hollywood career disintegrated nearly a decade ago following allegations of sexual misconduct. His handling of the film is quite restrained and unhurried here. He also served as one of four cinematographers working on the film, credited with the super8 footage. Apparently though both Melania Trump and Rattner were difficult to work with, resulting in an unhappy shooting environment, with many of the crew reportedly asking to have their names removed from the credits.
Amazon has spent a reported $75 million on producing and distributing this propaganda puff piece as billionaire owner Jeff Bezos is trying to curry favour with the Trump administration.
President Trump has been using his social media platforms to urge his MAGA faithful to support the movie in theatres, and it seems as if they have responded to his call. But then they have gone on to the review aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes and universally and somewhat disingenuously given the film five-star ratings across the board, without taking into consideration its lack of entertainment value, its lack of insight, or lack of cinematic quality. Trump has loudly proclaimed, in capitals as usual, that this is the greatest film ever in the history of cinema! It’s not the greatest film ever made, but neither is it the worst film ever made.
And that is about the best thing I can say about it.
★☆
