“Melania,” documentary that follows the first lady in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, will begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video on March 9.
The film was directed by Brett Ratner, who was best known for directing the first three “Rush Hour” films before being accused of rape and other sexual misconduct by multiple people in 2017. “Melania” is his first project as a director since the allegations, which drove much of the entertainment industry to cut ties with him.
The Trump family got a much-publicized payday when Amazon MGM Studios bought the rights to “Melania” for $75 million dollars. Though the documentary lost money in theaters, its box office performance was still stronger than expected, debuting with $7 million in its opening weekend and going on to make $16.6 million. Older white women made up its primary audience.
“Melania” was poorly reviewed, scoring an 11% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety‘s review called the film a “cheeseball infomercial of staggering inertia”: “‘Melania’ is a documentary that never comes to life,” wrote chief film critic Owen Gleiberman. “It’s a ‘portrait’ of the First Lady of the United States, but it’s so orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial. Is it cheesy? At moments, but mostly it’s inert. It feels like it’s been stitched together out of the most innocuous outtakes from a reality show. There’s no drama to it. It should have been called ‘Day of the Living Tradwife.’”
Among its target audience, however, the film did well: The Rotten Tomatoes “Popcornmeter,” which measures the sentiments of verified ticket buyers, “Melania” scored a 98%.
From Variety US
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