I'm not going into the politics of the subject of this film, or her husband, nor his followers. Nor will I savage the gross display of wealth by a modern robber baron with no taste that can be seen in this film because what would be the point since most other reviewers let their emotions run rampant.
Instead, I'm just going to explain why the film is bad (and sad) from a technical standpoint.
First and foremost, this film should not be considered a documentary. This is a work entirely of fiction. I say this because every shot, every action was staged just for the camera. We know this because almost every shot does not actually match the ones on either side. Every time the first lady is seen walking down a hall or across a room and it's cut together from a series of takes of the same action. Its as the woman on screen could not maintain anything for more than ten or fifteen seconds. When she meets people they and objects move as if this "actual" moment was being created from multiple takes. There is no sense of life, just a badly written episode of some broken sitcom. There is no sense of life or of a person at the center just unemotive robot.
As you watch the film, moments that are supposed to be just happening are seen to be staged. People try not to look at the camera or do something until told to. Sit on this couch until called, and don't look at the camera. And then when someone does something it is so unnatural as to be laughable.
At no point do we see people just being. There are no shots of people sitting around just shooting the breeze or making an off handed comment or joke. Everything serves the political objective. There are no friends just co-workers. Even the relationship between family members is strained and formal and sub-zero icy. There are no real humans on the screen, just puppets being moved around. There is no genuine emotion or feeling between anyone on any level.
The film is full of what the f$#& needle drops. The film opens with the Stones' Gimme Shelter. Why? I have no idea other than they could cut a music video of the trip from Florida to New York to it. That leads into Billie Jean which is another head scratcher not the least of which is the subject of the song is saying a child is his -even though he isn't (is Baron not the president's son?). Other songs or pieces of music are used that seem wildly out of place if you know the context of the source. I know the film had issues with music use, with some music sued to be removed, so I'm wondering if the Amazon version dropped pieces of music in because they had to use something.
The film generates no sense of a world outside of what we see. The first lady is always in a bubble, even on the street. That might have been something had it made it feel like she is isolated, but the film just makes it all feel like a bad TV show where nothing exists outside of what is on screen. Even the people around her are non-entities because all though we see names on the screen, the film makes no effort to explain who anyone is. Who are these people? Why are they important- beats the snot out of me.
Ultimately the biggest failure of the film is that it never explains why any of this matters. Melania is always a cipher. She is a cold block of ice in a perfect suit, perfect hair and dark glasses. There is no passion in anything she does or says- and only seems to be doing things for the film. She is a model, a trophy, a perfect creation, a living toy. What of the things she does like Philanthropy? We only see it because it looks good to be seen doing it. Everything happens because it looks good...
...but we can see it's all hollow inside. Nothing she does is real, but something stitched together. Her conversations and narration are all unnatural and feel like someone else's words.
The truth of the matter is this could have and should have been something great, but the first lady or her handlers, or her husband, are genuinely superficial and think superficial is real. They couldn't find someone to tell the real story (not that they wanted the real story told) and instead had to find someone to make a sales film for a far from interesting life. Melania's life is being sold as top of the line but because of the way the film is, you can see it is put together with dollar store glue and glitter and covered with cheap gold spray paint. It's a scam portrait of the scam life of a grifter who married another grifter and got stupidly lucky and can spend millions trying to make the emptiness mean something even if she doesn't seem to really believe it herself. This film is a desperate attempt to make a woman who bristles at being in the public eye seem likable. (If only they had someone who was a real documentary filmmaker and not a guy who made action films)
And despite momentary fake media success that was bought by friends throwing money at the project, it's a failure because no one wanted anything to do with it long term. Any initial success died off quickly. The world moved on to a war started by someone on the screen, this puff piece ceased to matter. This isn't worth trying to riff or hate watch because 20 minutes in, you're just going to tun it off and wonder why they hell you bothered to go that long or how anyone could stay to the end.
The worst part of the film is it isn't even bad enough to hate it's just empty and dull. There is nothing here to like or get ups set over. This wasn't made to really explain the first lady but to scam money from those seeking to curry favor. Like every project by the first lady's husband, and even her own autobiography, it is doomed to fail and be forgotten because there is nothing real behind it just an attempt by a low rent PR firm to create a likable image even though they don't know what that it is.
ADDENDUM: Trump and the Stones are at war over the use of Gimme Shelter and is threatening to revoke the Stones' visas
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