Carmel, Indiana
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Marla Ailor attended President Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>inauguration last year with her family, and remembered thinking it was a long day.\n <\/p>\n \n So she breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as she watched Melania Trump\u2019s documentary<\/a> and saw that \u2014 after a day that included three balls and returning to the White House at 2 a.m. \u2014 the first lady kicked off her heels.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a gauntlet,\u201d she said. \u201cYou really appreciate what they have to go through in order to get through an event like that, and what their day must really be like.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Ailor, the elected clerk-treasurer of nearby Westfield, was one of about 100 people \u2014 mostly older women \u2014 who packed all but two of the 10 rows of seats at a Regal movie theater northeast of Indianapolis on Friday for one of the first showings of Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 \u201cMelania,\u201d which documents a 20-day stretch leading up to Trump\u2019s return to office. In Carmel, a group of about 20 women who are active in local politics bought tickets for the 12:45 p.m. showing.\n <\/p>\n \n The film wasn\u2019t a hit in every city on its opening day. Theaters in some cities were nearly empty. In Washington, DC, the first showing of the day \u2014 11:30 a.m. ET at Regal Gallery Place downtown \u2014 was about one-third filled, and almost everyone in the theater was a reporter. Representatives of NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic were among those in the room.\n <\/p>\n \n Before the previews began, a male reporter called out, \u201cIs everyone a journalist here?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A chorus of replies came from across the room: \u201cHere.\u201d \u201cHere.\u201d \u201cHere.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAny civilians?\u201d the man asked.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m a civilian,\u201d said one woman, who added that she was there with a journalist friend.\n <\/p>\n \n Critics have alleged the multi-million dollar film might have been made with an ulterior motive. The president on Thursday batted away suggestions that the $40 million that Amazon MGM Studios paid to acquire the rights<\/a> could constitute corruption. \u201cI think it\u2019s really going to be very important. It shows life in the White House. It\u2019s a big deal actually,\u201d he told reporters on the red carpet at a Kennedy Center premiere<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n In the film, it\u2019s the president, not the first lady, who draws most of the laughs. One scene depicts Donald Trump asking his wife if she\u2019d watched his election night victory speech, as she responds \u2014 seemingly in a hurry to get off the phone \u2014 that she\u2019ll catch it later on the news. Attendees chuckled when he\u2019s told he\u2019ll ride to the inauguration with outgoing President Joe Biden and responds, \u201cThat\u2019ll be an interesting drive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In London, some who attended the documentary\u2019s opening day panned it afterward. One person said that \u201cit\u2019s like if Victoria Beckham became first lady.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Siblings Daniel and Elise Fairweather both disliked the film, even though Daniel \u2014 who called it \u201ctone-deaf\u201d \u2014 said he likes Melania Trump herself. \u201cShe\u2019s surrounded by \u2018yes\u2019 men,\u201d Elise Fairweather said.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, across the United States on Friday, many Trump supporters said they\u2019d bought tickets to see \u201cMelania\u201d on its opening day because they wanted to demonstrate their support for the first family.\n <\/p>\n \n Outside an AMC theater in Los Angeles, Mary Eike, a 74-year-old retired CPA and Trump supporter, said she showed up early to catch the first screening. When asked what motivated her to come see the film, Eike told CNN she feels it\u2019s \u201cabout time they did something with that gorgeous first lady.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis woman is beautiful and she\u2019s charming and nice and just a strong person,\u201d said Eike, a Los Angeles resident who voted for Trump. \u201cIf I had a daughter, I\u2019d want her to be just like her.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n After seeing the documentary, Eike told CNN that she\u2019d been struck by the same thing Ailor in Indiana had mentioned.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat I couldn\u2019t get over was 22 hours in heels \u2014 looking drop dead gorgeous after 22 hours,\u201d Eike said.\n <\/p>\n \n A 73-seat theater at the Cinemark Majestic in Meridian, Idaho, was nearly full. Most of the theatergoers appeared to be in the 50s, 60s or 70s, and mostly female. Their reactions during the screening were largely subdued, with a few chuckles here and there, such as when Melania Trump calls her husband and says, \u201cHi, Mr. President,\u201d and he responds, \u201cHi, honey.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt was interesting to see the role of the first lady and garner perspective on what she does,\u201d said Kenny Cormack of Meridian, who said he\u2019d come to the earliest showing largely to accompany his mother and sister.\n <\/p>\n \n He said the most surprising thing, to him, was \u201cthe influence she had on the decorations, and the thought that went into it. That part kind of impressed me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In Jupiter, Florida, 69-year-old Maggie Little said she loved the music \u2014 including Melania Trump singing Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cBillie Jean\u201d during a car ride and waving her hands to the Village People\u2019s \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In California, Eva Hackett, 80, a retired real estate agent and a Los Angeles resident, said she appreciated seeing \u201chow much work\u201d goes into being the first lady.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI have a lot of admiration, more for her now than before. I knew she was intelligent. I always liked the fact that she was stubborn,\u201d Hackett said. \u201cI thought she gave us a good insight into everything that goes into the first lady \u2013 and the long day and the patience.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A moment many attendees across the county pointed to as a highlight: Melania Trump suggesting the word \u201cunifier\u201d as she watched the then president-elect practicing his inaugural address and looking for a word to replace what had previously been written. The president works in the first lady\u2019s suggestion, and pauses, turns and points to her after delivering the line during his speech.\n <\/p>\n \n In Indiana, Erica Strahm, a 52-year-old youth coordinator for a tobacco prevention and cessation program from Westfield, said she teared up at times during the movie \u2014 including when Melania Trump talked about her relationship with her mother, who died in early 2024.\n <\/p>\n \n Strahm said she wanted to see the film on its opening day to show her support. She said she didn\u2019t learn new things about the Trumps, but appreciated being able to \u201csee the behind the scenes of what you don\u2019t normally get to see.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect, and I thought it was fantastic. I it was one of those movies where at the end I wanted to clap,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carmel, Indiana \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Marla Ailor attended President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration last year with her family, and remembered thinking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-267122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}