Melania (2026 documentary)

Category: Documentary

Directed by: Brett Ratner

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There's an old saying from Madame de Stael that goes:

In life, one must choose between boredom or suffering. 

In light of that, shall I add, that on the very rare occasion, life gives you both at the same time.

With this in mind I bring you my review of Melania, a documentary film released earlier in 2026 that chronicles three particular weeks in the life of current United States First Lady Melania Trump in the lead-up to the January 2025 inauguration of her husband, Donald Trump.

Just to make clear - I'm reviewing this as a film watcher and keeping any thoughts about US president Trump or his administration, be they positive or negative, aside. If you're after a Trump-bashing exercise, this isn't it.

But even as a film watcher, I have some fairly strong opinions which I want to get to, so let's get into a plot recap first:

There honestly isn't much of a plot or a story here.

Melania Trump is filmed doing things leading up to and preparing for the 2025 inauguration of her husband, Donald Trump. She visits her clothing designers, she visits set designers to discuss the pre-inauguration candlelight dinner. She goes to a New York church to mark the one year anniversary of the passing of her mother. She has a video call with Brigitte Macron about keeping children safe online. She has an in-person chat with Aviva Siegel, an Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas and whose husband was still being held hostage. She gets a visit at Mar-A-Lago from the Queen of Jordan - the equally stylish Rania Al Abdullah - as they discuss another charitable venture. She goes with her husband to Jimmy Carter's funeral. She goes to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier alongside her husband, J. D. Vance, and his wife Asha, as well as discussions about the parade route and security detail.

In the final couple of days, there's the obligatory stay at Blair House, some pre-inauguration stuff, the inauguration itself FINALLY happens, there's a speech from Donald Trump, the changeover arrangements where the White House staff move the previous president's stuff out and move the new president's stuff in. Joe and Jill Biden are choppered away.

Trump goes to bed after a very long day.

The documentary then finishes with a photo shoot of Melania and text over the screen informing us that Melania is reinventing the role of America's First Lady, then lists various initiatives and accomplishments attributed to Melania herself. 

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That's it. There's really not much to it. It's not a deep intellectual exercise. It's not revealing dark, hidden secrets. It's not inspiring you to cheer for an underdog. It's not advocating reform. It's just there and there is very little intellectual nutrition to be found. 

If you hate Trump and everything he stands for, all you will get here is fuel for the fire. If you love Trump, you'll already know how the chorus goes. And if you're just a political junkie who is fascinated by the behind-the-scenes machinations of how the White House as an organisation works, you'll find very little to get excited by. There's very little of that.

In essence, this film talks a lot, but says nothing. As I was watching this, I pondered: Who is the target audience for this? One name comes to mind, but that's about it.

Now, on to the actual content.

The way the documentary plays out is that it's a series of scenes where Melania will be on camera doing something such as talking to her tailors, her set designers, walking onto a plane, greeting a guest, we occasionally get some words directly from others as well. In between Melania talking to whoever she's talking to, there will be a voiceover from Melania explaining how important her work as First Lady is, or how important her family is, or how wonderful America is. Stuff that seems profound at times, but you can't help but feel is heavily scripted.

Actually, "heavily scripted" is probably the best description for this whole enterprise. Numerous times, there are multiple camera angles of Melania doing something simple like walking on to a plane or into a room. Why?

And on that, "why?" is the pertinent question that springs to mind when Melania visits a church to honour the one year anniversary of the passing of her mother. It was uncomfortable in that it went for an inordinately long time (definitely longer than a lot of the other scenes) - the camera follows her while she walks along the cathedral to the altar, the camera gets close up to her while she's at the altar, then shots of her lighting a candle. She lights the candle, says her peace, then walks out to be prayed over by the archbishop - all on camera! I don't want to say that the whole thing was done simply for the cameras, but it does all feel heavily staged.

Something else I did notice is that someone who repeatedly says that family is most important to her, 45 mins in and the only mention of her family is one phone conversation with Donald, her dad takes up a few minutes of screen time, and a few fleeting mentions of Barron. In fact, the only Trump child directly acknowledged by Melania is Barron, though the others do appear on camera at events during and after the inauguration.

On the phone call with her husband, I had a massive laugh because even in a personal phone call, Donald can't help but brag and poor Melania just has to sit there and listen along.

Just to add to the weirdness, at the end while Melania is doing her photoshoot, we see portraits of numerous First Ladies shown on camera starting with Eleanor Roosevelt (not Martha Washington, for some reason) and going up to Jacqueline Kennedy..and then suddenly skipping to Melania! What the heck?????

In the interests of fairness, I will list some positives as well:

The slick production. Very well shot, good use of far shots, B-roll and drone/aerial footage. Brett Ratner ain't no slouch!

The cinematography makes America look like a gorgeous place, rain, hail or shine.

Melania has a good eye for fashion. Maybe a bit too preoccupied with it, but she is stylish.

Barron Trump is fucking huge. He's gotta be at least 6'7"!

The addition of handicam footage from Melania's dad, Victor, actually came across as the most relatable and human sections of the film - the stuff that wasn't filmed professionally.

My final words - Melania is basically a hybrid between documentary and a hagiography. But it does lead to the question: is this the real Melania?

We come painfully close to seeing a personality behind the highly-procured image when she confesses she's a fan of Michael Jackson and starts singing Billie Jean, and there's a goofy singalong to YMCA after a Trump speech. Painfully, painfully close.

Melania, to sum it up, is a very unique combination of boredom and suffering.

STAR RATING: 1/5