p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n
I\u2019m hesitant to call \u201cMelania\u201d propaganda because I can\u2019t imagine anyone watching this movie and thinking that Melania Trump comes off well. If this vapid, airless, mindless time-waster had subversive designs of being a satire about the first lady of the United States, there\u2019s not much it would have changed. Yet somehow, \u201cMelania\u201d is exactly the film that the first lady wanted to make \u2014 her company was paid $40 million for the rights to this self-greenlit production \u2014 and no one around her warned that it was a very expensive bad idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelania\u201d didn\u2019t screen for critics and, of the dozen people in my AMC theater on opening day last Friday, half of us were journalists paying to play catch-up. Introducing \u201cMelania\u201d at its Kennedy Center premiere the night before, the lead herself insisted that it is not a documentary but a \u201cvery deliberate act of authorship inviting you to witness events and emotions through a window of rich imagery.\u201d Mostly, it\u2019s B-roll of Melania stepping in and out of SUVs. My best guess is her pay rate is a million dollars an hour.<\/p>\n
The president is effusive the first time that he greets his wife on an airplane tarmac alongside the film crew. \u201cA movie star!\u201d Trump says with a grin. He has a couple reasons to sound happy. For one, he\u2019s getting to actually make public eye contact with his wife. As a bonus, she even offers up her cheek for a peck, which is as affectionate as things get between them.<\/p>\n
With the same queenly beneficence she grants her husband, Melania has allowed the long-out-of-work director Brett Ratner (this is his first film since six women accused him of sexual assault<\/a> in 2017) access to film her in tightly constrained snippets until the day after her return to the White House. It is 2025 and Trump will be sworn back into office as the 47th president of the U.S. in 20 days \u2014 or is it 13? One attempts to measure the passage of time in her outfit changes \u2014 a white jacket, shiny black leggings, a tight leather pencil skirt \u2014 although the exact numbers blur when Melania attempts to count them.<\/p>\n In terse, precise narration that provides most of our chances to hear her voice, Melania says that this will be a movie about \u201cfamily, business, philanthropy and becoming first lady of the United States, again.\u201d The latter, yes. Otherwise that proves to be a checklist of several things the movie scarcely touches on at all.<\/p>\n An intimate portrait, this is not. There\u2019s no mention of how she and Trump fell in love and no words are exchanged with her stepchildren Ivanka, Tiffany, Eric and Donald Jr., not even to dispel rumors about their frosty relationship. Melania does gaze fondly at her son Barron on a couple of television screens and predicts he will grow up to have \u201cultimate success.\u201d The only time I remember them speaking is a goodbye as he turns his back to lope down a hallway.<\/p>\n You become well-acquainted with her stiletto Louboutins and her silent, hunky blond bodyguard. We do witness insider White House events, like the five-hour window used to swap out all of Biden\u2019s furniture for Trump\u2019s, a breakneck turnaround accompanied by a panic of violins. As for witnessing emotions, though, Melania\u2019s inexpressive voice-over assures us that her guarded surface contains deep empathy for humankind.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone should do what we can to protect our individual rights,\u201d Melania says. \u201cNo matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity.\u201d Indeed, this isn\u2019t a documentary \u2014 a black comedy, perhaps? In another scene, Melania silently watches news footage of the 2025 Los Angeles fires<\/a> alone on a couch while informing us that it\u2019s \u201cimpossible to see these images and not be devastated.\u201d Bless her heart, she tries.<\/p>\n The first lady doesn\u2019t mention politics other than to briefly say that it\u2019s a shame so many people seem to wish her husband harm. Otherwise, she shares her precise opinions on every object she drinks from, sits on or wears. The opening finds her futzing over the neckline of her inauguration day blouse before telling the tailors to slice into the fabric with scissors. This outfit will be in a museum someday, she says. She\u2019s not wrong, although the most compelling thing about that moment is witnessing how exceedingly agreeable everyone is in her orbit. One whispers, \u201cI don\u2019t think we can cut it, though,\u201d once she glides out of the room.<\/p>\n \u201cMelania\u201d plays like a sizzle reel for her post-political (post-spousal?) future career in which she may rouse herself to be a guest judge on a reality competition show. She reminds us of her education in architecture and her Slovenia-to-Rome-to-Manhattan modeling path during which she gained confidence approving or disapproving of various fabrics, as well as the pride she took last term in renovating the Rose Garden (now paved) and decorating the East Wing (now demolished). Her dress designer fashions the closest thing the film has to a metaphor for Melania herself: a gown constructed with no visible seams. \u201cA mystery,\u201d he beams.<\/p>\n On camera, Melania barely talks to anyone besides her employees, a few of whom pick up on the Bravo Channel-style of the film and dutifully recite her opinions on her behalf, like when her event planner David Mann shows her the inauguration invitations and compliments them for being printed in \u201cthe color red \u2026 which you chose.\u201d I experienced a secondhand childhood shiver of being prompted to write a thank-you note. (In fairness, Melania tells people \u201cthank you\u201d often.)<\/p>\n One of her helpers, who moved to the States from Laos at the age of 2, beams that her proximity to the first lady \u201creally is the American dream.\u201d Both women are immigrants, the film notes, although it doesn\u2019t mention the Trump administration\u2019s feelings about that. It\u2019s worth noting that last year, the United States deported several hundred Laotian refugees back to their homeland, many of whom arrived here as toddlers after the Vietnam War. As for Slovenians, it deported three.<\/p>\n Halfway through \u201cMelania\u2019s\u201d 104-minute running time, it occurred to me that it would feel scandalous if Ratner so much as taped her doing something as human and unguarded as eating a bite of food. Melania does, however, approve of Mann\u2019s suggestion that she serve an appetizer of caviar-topped golden eggs. \u201cWhite and gold is you,\u201d he assures her, although \u2014 drama alert \u2014 she later admits that her favorite colors are actually white and black.<\/p>\n The other scintillating confession comes in the back of an SUV when Ratner drags it out of Melania that her favorite musician is Michael Jackson. He follows up that revelation by asking her to name her favorite song. \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d she replies. We\u2019ve already heard that hit on the soundtrack, which also features needle drops by the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis. (They must have gobbled up a portion of the film\u2019s otherwise confounding price tag.) Someone also selected a piece from the score of \u201cPhantom Thread,\u201d<\/a> the Paul Thomas Anderson drama about an underdog immigrant wife who poisons her much older spouse. Nevertheless, the unseen chauffeur cues \u201cBillie Jean\u201d again on the stereo. Melania lip syncs. It\u2019s the film\u2019s action spectacular.<\/p>\n Documentary filmmakers are inquisitive and curious; they prefer real facts to alternative ones. Ratner, of course, earned Hollywood over $2 billion with his blockbusters about gunfire and exploding cars. He\u2019s never made a documentary \u2014 and I agree with the first lady that he hasn\u2019t made one now.<\/p>\n Still, I enjoyed several scenes exactly as they were: Melania hurrying to get off the phone with Trump when he starts boasting about his electoral college numbers (\u201cIt was a big win,\u201d she assures him, smoothly), Melania nudging her husband to profess that his \u201cproudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier,\u201d Trump\u2019s pique that his big day must battle for ratings against the college football championships. \u201cWe\u2019ve had this date for hundreds of years,\u201d Trump says with a huff. \u201cThey probably did it on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n As a kicker, \u201cMelania\u201d observes its central couple politely nodding goodnight after they come home from three inauguration balls, making it clear that the couple prefers separate bedrooms. Their marriage remains an enigma. Ratner captures lots of hand-holding, little connection. Reacting to the one-year anniversary of Melania\u2019s mother\u2019s death, her husband tells the camera, \u201cThis one had a hard time with that.\u201d He sounds like he\u2019s talking about an assistant challenged to bring him an ice-cold Diet Coke.<\/p>\n I cannot recommend \u201cMelania\u201d as a good movie or even an interesting one. It has the feel of a soothingly looped AI screen saver, a trance-inducing spell where nothing matters so long as your high heels aren\u2019t hurting your feet. Yet against all odds, there is a truth in her SUV-to-tarmac-to-SUV-to-tarmac insularity. Future historians will be glad to have \u201cMelania\u201d as a lens into this moment in time. Like everything she touches, it\u2019s a costly artifact.<\/p>\n ‘Melania’<\/p>\n Rated: PG, for some thematic elements<\/p>\n Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes<\/p>\n Playing: In wide release Friday, Jan. 30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> I\u2019m hesitant to call \u201cMelania\u201d propaganda because I can\u2019t imagine anyone watching this movie and thinking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2798,217,28729,1924,76039,9831,4264,48,52,51,47,50,49,76038,4287,7755,78220,1519,435,78221,1557],"class_list":["post-160977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-couple","tag-day","tag-documentary","tag-film","tag-first-lady","tag-first-time","tag-husband","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-melania","tag-movie","tag-one","tag-ratner","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-white-jacket","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}