Melania review: A glossy void masquerading as access
Amazon’s $40 million documentary about the First Lady presents not insight, not intimacy, but a hollow piece of image management — a gilded distraction that recalls Marie Antoinette retreating into cake-filled luxury while the world burns.
At a noon screening on a Friday at the Vue in Westfield Stratford City, East London, there are five of us in attendance. By some unspoken agreement, we scatter ourselves across the auditorium, avoiding the center, avoiding one another, avoiding eye contact. No one seems eager to share this experience. We are here, after all, to watch what has been marketed as an “insider look” at one of the most opaque figures in global politics. What we receive instead is a soft-focus propaganda film and a baffling attempt to position Melania Trump as a kind of fashion savant.
“I love black and white,” she intones in a flat voiceover. “I will move forward with purpose, of course, with style.”
The opening montage is pure spectacle. Soundtracked to the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter, the camera lingers on red-soled Louboutin heels before revealing Melania herself: emerging from helicopters, planes, chauffeured cars, ascending and descending elevators in oversized black sunglasses, gazing into the middle distance. The comparison to Miranda Priestly’s entrance in The Devil Wears Prada is unavoidable — except here, the authority feels borrowed, the mystique manufactured.
The film loosely tracks the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US president. We follow Melania through dress fittings, meetings with interior designers and event planners, and repeated hand-wringing over the infamous inauguration hat. These scenes play like a lifestyle reel for the ultra-wealthy, drained of context and consequence.
This is Melania’s With Love, Meghan or Gwyneth Paltrow moment: another attempt to reframe a widely scrutinized woman as a misunderstood brand in waiting. The fashion-heavy first half feels designed to lull the audience — until the film’s real purpose emerges.
Repeated B-roll from inauguration events showcases the new American court: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook. Trump proclaims it is time to “straighten out the nation.” Melania, now firmly positioned as loyal consort, walks hand in hand with her husband and praises his political endurance. “People have tried to murder him, slander him and incarcerate him,” she says solemnly. “I am so very proud of him.”
The documentary makes little effort to disguise its transactional nature. Amazon reportedly paid around $40 million for the rights, with $28 million going directly to Melania, and spent a further $35 million promoting the film. It had the full backing of the Trump administration: a private White House screening, an official premiere hosted at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center. Reports suggest that two-thirds of the crew requested anonymity — and that was before further controversy erupted.
The film’s director, Brett Ratner, has not worked in Hollywood since 2014 following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in 2017 (which he has denied and for which he was never charged), adding yet another uncomfortable layer to an already fraught project.
So what, after 104 minutes, do we learn about Melania Trump? Almost nothing. She speaks rarely, says little, and reveals less. Perhaps her favorite artist is Michael Jackson. Perhaps Billie Jean is her favorite song. She knows all the words — she tells us so herself.
Any questions viewers may have had about the First Lady remain unanswered. In fact, the film leaves you with more questions than when you arrived.
As the credits roll, the remaining four audience members file out in carefully staggered exits, still avoiding one another. There is nothing to discuss. What would there be to say?Melania review: A glossy void masquerading as access
As protests and grief ripple through American streets, Melania lands in cinemas like an exercise in astonishing tone-deafness. Amazon’s $40 million documentary about the First Lady presents not insight, not intimacy, but a hollow piece of image management — a gilded distraction that recalls Marie Antoinette retreating into cake-filled luxury while the world burns.
At a noon screening on a Friday at the Vue in Westfield Stratford City, East London, there are five of us in attendance. By some unspoken agreement, we scatter ourselves across the auditorium, avoiding the center, avoiding one another, avoiding eye contact. No one seems eager to share this experience. We are here, after all, to watch what has been marketed as an “insider look” at one of the most opaque figures in global politics. What we receive instead is a soft-focus propaganda film and a baffling attempt to position Melania Trump as a kind of fashion savant.
“I love black and white,” she intones in a flat voiceover. “I will move forward with purpose, of course, with style.”
The opening montage is pure spectacle. Soundtracked to the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter, the camera lingers on red-soled Louboutin heels before revealing Melania herself: emerging from helicopters, planes, chauffeured cars, ascending and descending elevators in oversized black sunglasses, gazing into the middle distance. The comparison to Miranda Priestly’s entrance in The Devil Wears Prada is unavoidable — except here, the authority feels borrowed, the mystique manufactured.
The film loosely tracks the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US president. We follow Melania through dress fittings, meetings with interior designers and event planners, and repeated hand-wringing over the infamous inauguration hat. These scenes play like a lifestyle reel for the ultra-wealthy, drained of context and consequence.
This is Melania’s With Love, Meghan or Gwyneth Paltrow moment: another attempt to reframe a widely scrutinized woman as a misunderstood brand in waiting. The fashion-heavy first half feels designed to lull the audience — until the film’s real purpose emerges.
Repeated B-roll from inauguration events showcases the new American court: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook. Trump proclaims it is time to “straighten out the nation.” Melania, now firmly positioned as loyal consort, walks hand in hand with her husband and praises his political endurance. “People have tried to murder him, slander him and incarcerate him,” she says solemnly. “I am so very proud of him.”
The documentary makes little effort to disguise its transactional nature. Amazon reportedly paid around $40 million for the rights, with $28 million going directly to Melania, and spent a further $35 million promoting the film. It had the full backing of the Trump administration: a private White House screening, an official premiere hosted at the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center. Reports suggest that two-thirds of the crew requested anonymity — and that was before further controversy erupted.
The film’s director, Brett Ratner, has not worked in Hollywood since 2014 following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in 2017 (which he has denied and for which he was never charged), adding yet another uncomfortable layer to an already fraught project.
So what, after 104 minutes, do we learn about Melania Trump? Almost nothing. She speaks rarely, says little, and reveals less. Perhaps her favorite artist is Michael Jackson. Perhaps Billie Jean is her favorite song. She knows all the words — she tells us so herself.
Any questions viewers may have had about the First Lady remain unanswered. In fact, the film leaves you with more questions than when you arrived.
As the credits roll, the remaining four audience members file out in carefully staggered exits, still avoiding one another. There is nothing to discuss. What would there be to say?
Source : Independent
