"Melania" Is the Documentary the Left Loves to Hate. But Will Their Vitriol Backfire?

By John Klar, Contributor, The MAHA Report

Doesn’t the left-leaning media know that the more you attack a film, the more you cause it to be pulled from a theatre, the more people will want to see it?

Critics tried to kill the Melania documentary before its release a week ago, on January 30. That didn’t work; it opened last weekend with a $7 million take – the highest theatrical box-office for a non-music documentary in more than a decade. According to Box-Office Mojo, by February 7 it had grossed roughly $12 million.

But hating the film is fast becoming a left-wing sport that in most cases has little to do with the documentary itself.

Maureen Dowd, the aging New York Times writer, used her column on the film (“Slovenian Sphinx Flick Nixed!”) to attack Melania Trump’s character, calling her an authoritarian in “the bosom of a corrupt family that is prostituting the People’s House.” The dowdy critic did not critique the movie; she derided its subject as “a Slovenian Sphinx” and a “movie star.” Not a syllable about Melania’s charitable work for U.S veterans, disadvantaged children, Israeli hostages, and other humanitarian initiatives – many detailed in the film.

Dowd’s attack was hardly singular. Left-wing commentary on the film more resembled therapy for writers gnashing their teeth in their own mirrors than anything approaching critical analysis of the movie they had watched. “As a purely cinematic experience, Melania, a ghastly parade of fun-house mirror herstory, will certainly be relegated to the footnotes of her family’s deeper atrocities,” Senior News and Engagement editor (whatever that is), Inae Oh, writes in Mother Jones.

Dowd’s hatred of President Trump pulsates through her column. “Her husband has been provoking violence since he and Melania rode down his golden escalator,” desperate Dowd writes, continuing, “his rhetoric and policies are designed to enrage and divide.” Further, she writes, “Her husband has torn America apart by denigrating immigrants and unleashing a rabid force of ICE agents on American cities.”

And how does this relate to the movie? It doesn’t.

Dowd’s rhetoric is designed to enrage and divide, to tear America apart, to unleash a rabid force – on a dutiful wife who supports charities, and an immigrant proud to be American.

But perhaps behind the vitriol is something deeper. Dowd and her ilk are livid that Melania performed so well at the box office. They are furious that anyone would dare watch a documentary featuring the wife of the object of their hatred. They are irate that the predominant viewing audience has been mature women. And they are terrified that this portends midterm success for conservatives.

If you actually watch Melania, you’ll learn that the First Lady supports veterans and children’s health, stronger families, and reduced bullying. Her “Be Best” initiative echoed the MAHA movement before it had a name, supporting physical exercise, mental health, and improved nutrition for children. During President Trump’s second term, she has launched “Fostering the Future,” a program that provides foster children with grants, vouchers, and other vital support through a public-private partnership.

People heaped praise on Michelle Obama after she planted a garden. Melania, a Slovenian immigrant, ought to be celebrated by the left for the humanitarian work with which she’s engaged in her adopted country; instead, her attackers can only access their hate.

Melania has become a cultural litmus test: one’s response to the film reveals more about one’s politics than one’s aesthetics. And, despite what we’re being told to think by left-leaning pundits, the movie is finding its audience. Rotten Tomatoes reports a single-digit critical rating but a 99% positive audience score. Like so many things in America today, it’s as if critics and everyday American moviegoers watched two different films

For me, the movie shows Melania as a strong-willed and empathetic human being, something HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also recognized. “I’m a big fan of Melania’s,” he told the press on the Melania premiere red carpet in Washington. “She’s been incredibly nice to my wife, Cheryl. She’s been a huge supporter of my agenda within the administration. I think her passion is children and children’s health.”

How will the Melania film impact the midterms? I believe favorably for the GOP. As one article dared to say out loud, “Every documentary filmmaker should be worried about the success of ‘Melania.’” So, too, should every Democrat.

Key takeaways:

– The new Melania movie far exceeded predictions in box office receipts on opening weekend.

– The left’s furious response ignores the charitable accomplishments of the First Lady, and may portend a growing public disenchantment with slanted media coverage that can’t even issue a movie review without an apoplectic screed.