‘Melania’ and the Real Housewives of Washington
At the end of Melania, portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy appear on screen as the Trumps settle into the White House and Mrs. Trump prepares for a portrait shoot. The choice of those three predecessors is striking and puzzling: the film hints they might signal Mrs.
Trump’s aspirations, but offers little to explain why they, of all first ladies, were selected. Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower, the documentary shows, are temperamentally and practically unlike Mrs. Trump. Mrs. Roosevelt’s relentless political work and Mrs.
Eisenhower’s folksy approach sit awkwardly beside a film that presents Mrs. Trump as a mostly apolitical, aloof tastemaker. The movie leans into fashion and staging — dress fittings, a pre-inaugural dinner planned with David Monn, recurring stiletto shots — underscoring a carefully crafted image that often reads as theatrical rather than candid.