Brett Ratner-directed film about US First Lady Melania Trump beautifully shot but short on substance
melania★★½
In selected cinemas
Probably, melania It aims to show us the woman behind the woman behind the man. It’s a lavish, beautifully shot documentary that lays bare many of the tropes of commercial cinema (director Brett Ratner’s principle remained grounded until accusations of sexual assault (which he denied) derailed his career in 2017). But the real revelations and insights into the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS for short) are as thin as the hairs on her husband’s head.
Melania Trump was a model before becoming real estate developer Donald Trump’s girlfriend, circa 1998. She was born in Slovenia and grew up watching her seamstress mother devote herself to the job of making everything beautiful.
“My mother’s talent and expertise in fashion fostered my deep appreciation for great design,” she says in the voiceover narration that guides us through the 20 days leading up to her husband’s (the second) inauguration as president in January 2025. “Through his wisdom, I have come to honor craft, appreciate art, and respect the level of excellence required to create timeless pieces.”
Melania’s devotion to the finely honed surface of things is evident in every frame of this film she produced. After a sweeping drone shot across the ocean and into the Trumps’ Florida palace, Mar-a-Lago, it opens with a rehearsal for the outfit she’ll wear on January 20.
We’re soon invited to admire the embossed A4 invitation and gold-accented flatware for a candlelit dinner thrown in honor of “the elegance and sophistication of our donors… the driving force and philosophy behind the campaign, the reason our victory was possible.”
Later, we see some guests at the dinner in question: Elon Musk is among them. Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon, is in the same situation.
Bezos’ company paid US$40 million ($57 million) to acquire the rights to this film, of which US$28 million went directly to its subject matter. The company reportedly spent another $35 million to market it.
This translates to approximately $106 million in Australian dollars; That’s an extraordinary amount for what could charitably be called a vanity project and ruthlessly softball propaganda for an administration that moves ever closer to fascism by the day. But in terms of clout and some of the space business (where Bezos and Musk are bitter rivals), this is probably a bargain deal.
Melania talks a lot about the importance of family, and especially her son Barron. He talks about his good work, mostly focusing on child welfare (the Be Best campaign targeted cyberbullying; the Fostering the Future program aims to guide foster children into higher education, among other things). And it embraces hard-to-negotiate values and frames them from the perspective of a successful immigrant.
Towards the end of the film, he says, “Everyone should do their best to protect our individual rights.” “Never underestimate them because ultimately, no matter where we come from, we are connected to the same humanity.”
Exactly how she calculates the version of America her husband is busy creating is anyone’s guess, because what she thinks or feels outside of these maternal expressions is largely out of bounds.
Yet she is devoted to playing the role of the dutiful and beautiful wife, constantly on display next to the smug and grinning Trump, holding his hand, dancing robotically at ball after ball. However, the information about the magnificence and ceremony of the opening is really interesting. And the scene where Melania enters the disco show YMCA Coming is a refreshingly rare moment of (seemingly) unscripted lightness.
“There is a lot to achieve in the next four years,” he says at the end of the film. Promising to “serve the American people once again,” he vows to “move forward with purpose and, of course, with style.”
The second point is difficult to argue with. melania It’s all about those perfect teeth, that gorgeous hair, that runway-friendly silhouette. But it is impossible not to feel that the real purpose of this portrait is not insight but a distraction from the awfulness and corruption of her husband’s regime.
