Miranda Devine: ‘Melania’ serves as a dainty middle finger to Trump’s media tormenters — who were wrong about everything

In a big blow to the Trump-deranged community, Melania Trump’s eponymous movie knocked the lights out on its opening weekend. It came in at No. 3 overall, and its $7 million box office takings in three days is almost unheard of for a documentary.

“Melania” is crushing it on Rotten Tomatoes, too, with a 99% audience score on the “popcorno­meter” easily besting the sneering critics’ 10% on the Tomatometer ratings.

Like everything to do with Donald Trump’s two presidencies, whatever the leftist media’s opinion, the American public thinks the opposite. The inverse media-ometer is one of the most reliable gauges of public sentiment in this country.

“To say that Melania is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies,” sniffed The Hollywood Reporter. Variety called it “a shameless infomercial.”

The first lady is “a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda,” snarled The Independent. The Guardian trashed the movie as “gilded trash” and “two hours of . . . pure, endless hell.”

Haha. Haters gonna hate.

‘Highly recommend’

But that’s not what the 99% of viewers said in hundreds of glowing audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Absolute class act documentary,” wrote Glynis. “Highly highly recommend.”

“Such a pleasure to see real class return to the White House,” wrote Deborah T.

“She is so classy, passionate and truly the most accomplished woman and First Lady ever!” wrote Susan.

“A view of the FLOTUS that the network media and national publications refuse to acknowledge,” wrote Kevin.

“Melania Trump is circumspect, a useful quality to have in Slovenia while it withered within the repressive Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but perhaps equally valuable in . . . today’s political landscape,” wrote thelegalaide.

“It was absolutely wonderful to finally see some of the wonderful things our First Lady has been involved with or even initiated. Would not see that on mainstream media!” wrote Robin.

The lavishly filmed “Melania” take us behind the scenes of the first lady’s life in the 20 days leading up to the inauguration.

We see inside the gilded walls of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, a whirl of limos and private jets, as the first lady glides inscrutably between Palm Beach, New York, and Washington, DC. Occasionally, we see a flash of private quarters — like the dressing room off the bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, where Joe Biden’s DOJ sent FBI agents to rummage through her underwear drawer.

Melania doesn’t mention that unfortunate incident, although no doubt it was on her mind when she allowed the cameras in.

You also see a little of the poky living room of the White House residence upstairs from the grandeur of the state rooms. She beckons the camera into the tiny kitchen at 2 a.m. after a whirlwind of inaugural balls. Staff can be seen pulling a dinner from the fridge for the returning president to eat.

As Trump heads out of the living room, presumably to enjoy his meal in private, he jokes to the camera before saying good night: “She’s very difficult, but there’s nobody like her.” Then he laughs and says she’s “not difficult.” Melania laughs.

While she maintains the disciplined poker face of the model she once was in every closeup, when she is interacting with other people, especially her husband, you get a glimpse of a warmer, less foreboding person.

Singing praises

The first couple hold hands, and he sings her praises.

 “She represents the country so beautifully,” he says at one point, griping that she doesn’t get credit.

The documentary comes across more like a lush extended music video, with crowd favorites like the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” which underscores the opening scene: a close-up of Melania’s floral stilettos as she clip-clops across marble floors.

From a woman who curates every aspect of her life to the finest detail, there is no doubting she wants us to take Mick Jagger’s words literally — “Ooh, a storm is threatening, my very life today” — as she steps into a limo en route to her life as first lady, the second time around.

Like her husband, Melania seems to like to communicate through music.

In one droll segment, the soundtrack switches to opera as the Trumps escort the Bidens out of the White House to the departing helicopter on inauguration day. As Marine One lifts off with the Trumps watching, the rousing overture of Gioachino Rossini’s opera “La gazza ladra” has a clear message. In English, the title is “The Thieving Magpie.” No accident.

Beyond the in-jokes and glamorous scenes, the movie has serious intent.

Over footage of Trump’s swearing in at the Capitol, Melania says: “People wanted to murder him, incarcerate him and slander him — and here he is. I’m so proud.”

The camera pans to her standing nearby with two Bibles, tall and strong in a severe dark navy coat dress and matching flat-brimmed hat that shades her eyes.

The outfit is unmistakably an armor she has donned to signal that things are different this time. She won’t be trifled with as she was in Trump’s first term, when the media buzzed with nasty leaks from her office and vicious commentary about everything from her clothes to her Christmas decorations. She worked hard to do everything right, but nothing suited them.

The portrayal of Melania was that she was either a trapped princess desperate to escape a loveless marriage, or a Slovenian gold digger with a shady past who shared her husband’s vile worldview.

As if to rub it in, the minute a frumpier first lady arrived in the form of Jill Biden, they fawned over her and put her on the cover of Vogue four times.

Controlling her image

Melania withstood the insults stoically. Never complaining or explaining. Until now.

Her riposte is this movie — a dainty middle finger to her media tormenters who were wrong about everything.

She decided to take full control of her image and present herself to the American public in a way that showcases the dignity and grandeur of the office while casting her in a positive light.

Theaters in Manhattan and Los Angeles might have been empty over the weekend, but there were sold-out crowds in Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Miami, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Cleveland.

And they loved what they saw, with Deadline reporting that exit reports for Melania were an “A” on CinemaScore, 5 stars on Screen Engine/PostTrak and an 89% “definite recommend . . . unheard of for any movie.”

The first lady made a reported $20 million plus from Amazon for her input and has launched a personal brand, which likely is worth many multiples of that in the future.

You can tut-tut all you like about the commodification of the office, but those eyeballs that are lapping up every moment of Melania could have been had for free by the news media if they hadn’t been so unjust to her.

“Melania” is their just desserts.