Melania Trump documentary opens to underwhelming reception: ‘It’s not a gripping film’

At the beginning of her new documentary, Melania Trump tells the viewer that “everybody wants to know” how she spends her time.

“So here it is,” she says. “Twenty days in my life.”

It’s a snappy introductory line, but, unfortunately for the first lady, it appears to be wrong. All available evidence suggests that, actually, very few people want to know about Melania Trump.

At one of New York’s busiest movie theaters on Friday, the day of Melania’s release, the crowd was sparse, and the poor turnout for Melania Trump’s vanity project, commissioned by Amazon founder and Donald Trump-friend Jeff Bezos, was reflected across the country, with executives forced to downplay predictions for the movie’s opening weekend.

Precisely 12 people had shown up to watch Melania at an AMC theater near Times Square, at least half of whom were journalists reviewing the movie. Only a handful of people were watching Melania for non-work reasons.

“I just think it’s really interesting to see, like, inside the life of somebody so famous. She’s a private person. So I think it’s interesting just to kind of see, you know, how her life really is, at least to some extent,” was the analysis of a viewer called Chase, one of the few non-reporters watching the movie.

“I thought it was very good. She really portrayed things that I think the public didn’t know prior about her. I found it really interesting,” the 24-year-old added. He said he classified himself as politically independent.

“I would have come to watch if it was Jill Biden, whoever. I think it’s just interesting to see.”

In the days ahead of its release, it seemed few people agreed. People shared screenshots from ticketing websites which showed vacant movie theaters in cities including Boston and Charleston. It is likely to lead to quite a loss for Amazon, which paid $40m for the documentary and spent an additional $35m to market it – although presumably being in the president’s good graces is priceless for Bezos.

Unfortunately, money alone cannot make Melania Trump interesting. She is an uneasy onscreen presence, someone so clearly uncomfortable in front of the camera that it makes one wonder why she would put herself through this. With its subject lacking charisma, much of the film is devoted to Melania Trump trying on clothes, although other highlights include footage of people playing croquet at Mar-a-Lago, in the manner of a retirement community.

“I didn’t dislike it as much as I thought I would,” said Jim Behrle, a Democrat who said he had gone to see the film because he “thought it might be funny”.

“There was some interesting stuff in it. There were some interesting characters, and some of the footage is shot really well,” Behrle, 52, added.

“There’s not a lot of rising action in the film at all. I mean, there’s not a lot of conflict or anything like that, but seeing some of the behind-the-scenes stuff is pretty interesting.”

Behrle said he watched Melania in part because he has a monthly pass to the theater which allows him to watch as many movies as he likes for $29. Despite being surprised by how little he disliked the movie, he is unlikely to recommend it to friends and family.

“It’s not a gripping film,” he said.