All about Melania

I wasn’t going to see the self-produced film Melania about - who else - Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States. I’d read that it was boring and frankly not great filmmaking. But I was curious. Then I saw the massive discrepancy between the critics' approval score of 10% versus the public's score of 99%.  And the film smashed documentary records with a first week box office return of $7million, the best opening for a doc in more than a decade (will it be shown at Toronto’s Hot Docs? Hmmm)  By Feb. 16 it had grossed $15.6M.  At my screening there was applause at the end. My hunch was something was wrong. This seemed more than critics' taste; alas, could it be bias? Film critics, as is Hollywood, are almost universally liberal or left wing. Had this self-indulgent film (and it is self-indulgent) been about Michelle Obama or Jill Biden the critics may not have swooned but they wouldn't have wholesale derided it, would they have? Because, after all, their opinion was likely more against Donald Trump than Melania - she was just the proxy. Melania produced the film herself - that's interesting - and the director was Rush Hour's Brett Ratner. So, being the sometimes contrarian that I am, I went to see it. And, yes yes, the film is highly one-sided and shows Mel (can I call her that?) in the best light possible. Nevertheless I still found it absorbing. Perhaps it's because, if nothing else, it provides a close insight into the executive branch of government and the kind of "insider's view" we'd never see anywhere else. The film follows Melania in the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Inauguration. There's her in the Trumps’ gilded Fifth Ave apartment with her fashion courtesans, measuring gowns. A former model she proves exacting and highly knowledgeable. Interesting that most of her wardrobe staff are immigrants. Then there's film of her in her limousine between NYC and Mar-a-Lago and the US Capitol on the eve of the Inauguration - simply the kind of behind the scenes images we never see. There's even a scene in the White House’s family quarters at 2 am after all the Inauguration balls have ended and Donald waves goodnight. Someone wishes him "sweet dreams" and he replies, "ha." Another aspect of her personality which stands out is her commitment to oppressed women and children around the world, as she meets with Queen Rania of Jordan and with Aviva Siegel, kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities against Israel. There’s some humor when on election night she takes a call from hubby Donald, informing her of his across-the-board vote wins. She says she hasn’t been watching the coverage and is almost disinterested, noting she will watch a recording later. She's ultimately her own woman.