The Melania Documentary Is Like Watching Succession on Sedatives, and Somehow That Works

Reactions to Melania have been overwhelmingly critical. The film has a rating of 1.4 on IMDb. Journalists called it overwhelmingly boring and out of touch. There was such a disparity on Rotten Tomatoes between the audience score of 98% and the critic score of 11%, that it prompted people to accuse the site of bot-farming positive audience reviews. 

The site's owner had to come out and set the record straight against the accusations, confirming that audience reviews for the Melania documentary are verified, require ticket purchase for the film, and are not the result of bot manipulation. As someone who did see the film, let’s get into it.

Succession Without the Stakes

Whoever cut the trailer for Melania deserves a raise. It sells a juicy glimpse into the First Lady’s inner life, what it’s like to be the right-hand woman to the president and the most controversial man in the world. The trailer sounds intriguing, with a reticent Melania dropping pithy lines like “here we go again” and invitations into an inner world never explored, “Everyone wants to know, so here it is.” But despite what the expertly crafted tongue-in-cheek preview would lead you to believe, that glimpse never comes.

An orchestral arrangement that sounds curiously like a Nicholas Britell composition blares in the background. We get humorous teases like a phone exchange with the president immediately following his win. An aloof and mysterious Melania stands alone in her golden tower, overlooking the city like a silhouette out of Fight Club. “Hi, Mr. President, congratulations,” she says ominously. “Did you watch it?” Donald asks the only woman in the nation whose eyes are not glued to the screen in a state of stress and awe. “I did not. Yeah, I will see it on the news,” she answers, rather dismissively. 

This is the Melania that had people thirsty for this project, whether they’ll admit it or not. Social media was abuzz upon the release of its teasers, expressing ironic hype and comparing its campy prestige documentary gloss to Charli XCX’s mockumentary, “The Moment.” In truth, Melania spends more time designing invitations, glancing at china, picking out tableware, assessing the width of her hat bands, and making endless alterations to her wardrobe than discussing anything that amounts to substance.

Sprinkled throughout the film are moments of real moral weight, but it’s far more interested in the logistics of transitioning the First Family ahead of a presidential handover, told from the First Lady’s perspective, than in anything of real consequence. Filled mostly with business meetings of little importance and liminal spaces, it leaves you with the feeling of what it must be like to be in her shoes: constant primping, then being whisked away to random events, countries, and national obligations. I imagine this aspect, Melania likes. She strikes me as someone who likes to stay distracted and on the move. 

Melania’s lack of pretense is part of the appeal.

As she anticipates re-entering a “very public life” as First Lady once more, she reflects on how everything becomes more structured following the inauguration: “more eyes, more pressure, fewer quiet moments.” Frequently moving from New York to Palm Beach to Washington, D.C., she talks of the importance of carrying the idea of home within herself. “Essentially, I find peace in each location,” she says. Essentially. An interesting word choice. It’s Mar-a-Lago, though, that holds special significance for her. She describes it as a “refuge from the outside world” and a place she can “exhale.” It’s where she has her most prized family memories with her son, husband, and father. The sunshine, stunning view, and breathtaking property don’t hurt, either.

She’s in charge of ensuring everything is in place and on schedule for the inauguration. This ordeal involves four days of celebrations beginning with a candlelight dinner the night before the swearing-in ceremony. We’re taken along to her endless meetings with fashion designers, tailors, event planners, and interior designers, where she leaves no stone unturned. 

“For me, it’s important that timeless elegance shines through every element of the inauguration’s decor, style, and design,” she says. The time spent emphasizing which color scheme and what stripe width makes sense might sound like droning, but this is her great contribution: making sure everything looks and is presented with immaculate taste, paying thorough attention to detail.

There are peripheral characters: President Donald J. Trump, their son Barron, a Zoom call with France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron, and intimate meetings with various workers and designers with whom Melania seems to have a great rapport. She meets with and consoles a former Israeli hostage, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington Cemetery to honor fallen servicemen, and hires her own team of workers. She also discusses with little gravitas her various anodyne children’s initiatives. By the end, we’re no closer to knowing who Melania is than Donald appears to be. If their perfunctory interactions are any indication, that leaves much to be desired. 

The First Lady Propaganda Industry

What you make of this artistic endeavor has everything to do with your view of the First Lady’s role or lack thereof. Those who wish her to be some kind of girlboss peacemaker, in with the Hollywood elite and dutifully submitting to every progressive cause with an earnest smile, have referred to the film as a “cheeseball infomercial of staggering inertia.” But there’s another perspective: that the role of First Lady is itself so performative and hollow that expecting anything beyond being the most fabulously dressed event planner, interior designer, and expert passenger princess—with a sickening face card and tight-lipped restraint—is almost an insult to our intelligence. From that angle, Melania’s lack of pretense is part of the appeal.

She makes little effort to be anything deeper than the Slovenian-born striver trophy wife to which she has happily laid claim years before Donald Trump’s political ambitions robbed her of middle-aged bliss. As some have noted, she probably doesn’t want this role, its associated dangers, or backlash, but it’s the one she’s been grandfathered into.

I do see why Melania has been so off-putting to normies. It all feels like an episode of Succession if no one were acting. Highlighting the First Lady’s impeccable style and keen eye for design, the documentary makes no effort to feign relatability. In that sense, it may be the most honest material profiling a First Lady in American history. The film details the opulence of Melania and Donald Trump’s lavish lifestyle with no apologies. There is no put-on “just one of you guys” posturing.

It may be the most honest material profiling a First Lady in American history.

Nearly every shot of the 104-minute runtime—from the sprawling Mar-a-Lago property to private jets nicknamed Trump Force One to the $100 million Trump Tower penthouse awash in gold, to Melania’s hand-tailored designer statement pieces, to her striking 55-year-old face unwilted by signs of aging (or emoting)—is a visual class reminder of the gulf between their lives and the average American. Though to be fair, this ostentatious display seems more a celebration of aspirational wealth and upward mobility than flexing. 

To hide just how much aesthetics matter to the Trumps would be silly. The Trumps represent a marriage between a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a striver immigrant who’s easy on the eyes. They’re proud of this. Most presidential administrations and their First Ladies go to great pains to exude a plain, austere, frugal nature. The Trumps, by contrast, find that painfully uninspiring. You’ll find on their dinner menus dishes like a golden egg served with caviar. Trump is disproportionately concerned, ahead of Inauguration Day, with whether Melania will be able to outdo her previous Inauguration Day garb with a more phenomenal get-up. 

Trump manages to sneak in an amusing jab at Biden and accuses the media of attempting to sabotage his big day by scheduling a college football national championship game at the same time. A set of interns transparently refuse to connect a Hollywood reporter wanting to report on the documentary to anyone in proximity to the Trump administration out of inherent distrust for Hollywood and journalists.

The film's throughline is the American Dream.

The film's throughline is the American Dream. Specifically, the (legal) immigrant version. Her immigrant story as a Slovenian-born woman is repeatedly emphasized, and at one point she bonds with a Laotian-born designer who works for her over their shared gratitude for American opportunity and equality. "Walking into the Capitol’s rotunda,” Melania said, “I felt the weight of history intertwined with my own history as an immigrant, a reminder of why I respect this nation so deeply.” She urged everyone to do what they can to protect our individual rights and never take them for granted “because in the end, no matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity.”

She drops endless platitudes about her gratitude for this country’s opportunities, her reverence for our civil liberties, the Constitution, our military, and the American dream of upward mobility as a place for immigrants to prosper. She also speaks to the honor of serving as First Lady representing the land of dreams around the world. She wants to be a “positive influence on the lives of Americans” and “an inspiring force in the world.”

Her gratitude for the opportunity lands as the most sincere of all. Other remarks, not so much. “For me, it's important that timeless elegance shines through every element of the inauguration's decor, style, and design,” Melania narrates, as my eyes begin to glaze over. I’m reminded of the leaked phone call in which she vented, in colorful language, about the meaningless niceties expected of a First Lady, like decorating the White House for Christmas. I wish we could see more of that Melania, but of course, she isn’t permitted to come out. But we know she’s there, and no useful idiot. Those leaked calls made clear that her views on immigration, for instance, are fully in line with her husband’s.

Melania Gets Deep, From a Distance

We get a glimpse at a more vulnerable, humanized Melania in the scenes reflecting on her late mother, Amalija Knavs’ passing. Her mother was a textile worker whose fashion taste, Melania says, cultivated in her a deep appreciation for design and attention to detail. Her mother, who immigrated by family sponsorship, lived in a suite in the White House with them during Trump’s first term. The second time around, without her mother, feels emptier.

Melania’s mother seems an important character in her life, as the documentary takes its time with this pain point, bringing it up several times, connecting it to the funeral of President Jimmy Carter because it fell on the anniversary of her mother’s passing. Following the funeral, she visits St. Patrick’s Cathedral to light a candle in her memory and receives a blessing from Father Enrique Salvo.

The grief, she says, never ends and simply lives alongside her, now. It’s bizarre to hear such dark themes come from such an elusive woman. Though she remains outwardly stoic, owing either to her magnificent cosmetic upkeep or just her Slovenian disposition, it’s clear there’s true heartbreak there. 

It’s clear there’s true heartbreak there. 

We also see a bit of her ambitious nature come out, as she narrates her intention to break old norms to elevate the position of First Lady. Reflecting on her early career, she seems to have been conscientious and driven from a young age, advising viewers that you’re never too young to set your goals. Melania took her modeling career seriously from a young age. As a teenager in Slovenia, she made the difficult decision to move across the world to pursue her dreams in fashion capitals like Milan and Paris. 

She says she always had very high personal standards for achievement, which remain with her today, and her ultimate goal is to “evolve the role of First Lady beyond formal social duties.” During her last term, she restored the rose garden, built the tennis pavilion, redesigned the bowling alley, the queen's room, and upgraded Camp David. Her grand contribution to the film, besides being a fabulous socialite and interior designer, is adding a single word to Trump’s inauguration speech. 

Rather than say his central role as president will be as "peacemaker,” she suggests he say “peacemaker and unifier.” It’s a played-up moment in the film, with Trump pretending he doesn’t want evidence of his wife contributing to his speech. In reality, when he reaches that line, he turns his whole body toward Melania, pointing at her as if to say, “This is the woman behind my success.” The scene comes off quite cutesy, in a happy-wife-happy-life sort of way.

Melania’s most hands-on contributions to policy include her children’s initiatives, Be Best and Fostering the Future. Be Best is a youth wellbeing initiative designed to combat cyberbullying and opioid abuse. Recently, it has expanded to include combating revenge porn. Fostering the Future is an initiative that provides resources like scholarships and career opportunities to foster youth. These initiatives are First Lady catnip. Something like investing in the youth of America is a project completely uncontroversial that no one would ever take issue with.

The Intrigue of the White House, the Presidency, and the First Lady

Melania is shot beautifully and boasts an electric soundtrack that oscillates between hits like "Billie Jean" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" to a much more toned-down, sophisticated score that screams “important people doing important things.” While the film is more of a style over substance approach, it does capture some interesting insider logistics. 

We learn of annual traditions and miraculous feats like converting all of the White House furniture from one family to the other in just five hours. We see all of the obligations that come with the event of a new administration: the endless galas, dinners, and ceremonies that are attached to one event of significance start to make your head spin, wondering how exhausting holding this mantle must be for just one week, let alone four years. 

You get anecdotes that make you realize how strange it must be for Barron, whose childhood was lived out in the White House from 10 to 14 years old, only to return to that place of childhood a grown man, filled with many of the same staff. When Melania speaks of the importance of fortifying her mental strength for this position, you can only imagine the depths it goes. We see the considerations they have to make and the stressors they have to live with, including whether it’s safe to step out of a car, securing perimeters at events, and fearing open-air venues due to previous attempts on the president’s life. 

Her power isn’t in governing, but in supporting, hosting, and showing up where she’s expected to.

While many critics find her romantic partnership with Donald Trump to be of questionable sincerity, they at the very least have an amicable working relationship that functions like a well-oiled machine. They seem to have a real camaraderie and playful banter you can’t fake. In small moments like sharing a dance, they seem genuinely happy. 

We hear about longstanding American traditions that are customary for the incoming President and First Lady to take part in, such as staying overnight at the historic Blair House the night before the inauguration. The packed schedule that fills inauguration day is a lightning rod of endless events that last 22 hours, complete with ceremonial teas, swearing-in ceremonies, and three inaugural balls all in the same day, coming to a close at two in the morning. 

By the time it’s all over, they’re still buzzing with electricity. Melania says, ”Being awake for 22 hours felt like nothing knowing that I was living a day which would be remembered forever.” Before heading off to bed, they take a moment to indulge in the surreality of their position: the highest position of power in the country, arguably the world. The walls are lined with culturally significant art and historical memorabilia. On his way to his room, Trump stops to admire a Monet, its engraving reading, “Claude Monet, presented by Jackie in honor of John Kennedy.” The next day, they’re down to business. Trump, presumably off to “Make America Great Again,” with Melania by his side. Or is it the other way around?

Though the film largely stays focused on Melania and avoids the nuclear baggage of Trump’s more contentious policy positions, she makes her support for her husband explicit. “Nobody has endured what he has over the past few years. People tried to murder him, incarcerate him, slander him. And here he is. I’m so very proud.”

So that’s Melania: about as boring as the role actually is. The First Lady is less a political actor than a symbol, an approximation of national mother or safely inoffensive wife. Her power isn’t in governing, but in supporting, hosting, and showing up where she’s expected to. In that sense, Melania may be the most honest portrait of a First Lady ever put on film, revealing not some hidden depth, but how little there ever was to reveal.