Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)
Barbie is a masterfully executed comedy which shows that Greta Gerwig can deliver blockbuster movies. It’s also very funny.
Margot Robbie is expertly cast as Barbara Millicent Roberts, a.k.a. Barbie. She has both the looks and the talent and that is much more complicated than you might assume if you only think of Barbie as ‘that doll from Mattel’.
Barbie is introduced as living in a perfect Barbieworld, with a lot of other Barbies and also with her boyfriend Ken (Ryan Gosling), but before long there is trouble in paradise: Barbie (or Stereotypical Barbie, as she is known to the other Barbies) starts to suffer from both depression and cellulite. It’s hard to say which is worse.
The other Barbies tell her to go and visit Weird Barbie: a dishevelled doll played (very well by Kate McKinnon), who functions as Barbieworld’s shrink and has dealt with this thing before.
Weird Barbie tells Stereotypical Barbie she has to leave Barbieworld and travel to Los Angeles, look for the girl who owns her in the real world and find out what’s troubling that particular person.
On paper this may all sound a little confusing but trust me, in the movie, which is often both whacky and coherent, it makes perfect sense.
Ken, meanwhile, is having problems of his own. He feels he is not being taken serious as a man by Barbie, but maybe that’s because dolls don’t have genitals. Still, he never gets to spend the night, he never even gets to kiss the girlfriend he loves so much.
When Barbie and Ken travel to Los Angeles together they discover that the real world is ruled by the Patriarchy and, while Barbie sets out to find what it’s like to be a real woman, he begins his own adventure of self-discovery, which will eventually lead to a highly amusing battle of the sexes, when they return to Barbieworld separately.
Barbie is produced by Warner Bros. in full cooperation with parent company Mattel, which plans to bring a lot of its other toys to the big screen in the coming years. The irony being that Mattel, headed by a bumbling CEO (embodied by a very fine Will Ferrell), is actually portrayed as the Big Bad of the movie, as they, amongst other things, just want to put our Barb back in a box.
Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach offer up numerous jokes at the expense of the company, which may seem subversive at first, but as it goes along it feels more like controlled criticism, with Ferrell being a good sport and Mattel taking it all in their stride - and counting the money this movie undoubtedly will make all the way to the bank.
At the risk of stating the obvious, Barbie, the movie, may be a lot of things, but it is definitely not the attack on consumerism that it might also have been. Gerwig’s love for Barbie shines through in every scene.
Het movie is undoubtedly told from a feminist perspective, there’s a wide variety of Barbie’s on display, and politically Gerwig makes it clear that the world would be a better place if women either ruled the world or at least shared the power with men. (The first option, probably).
If that’s something that annoys you or if you’re offended that Ken is portrayed as the ultimate metrosexual, this may not be the movie for you. But it’s not like guys can’t have a good time here. There is so much witty banter here, the movie is worth it for the dialogue (and the catchy soundtrack) alone.
Amidst all the comedy, there is also a touching scene when Barbie-creator Ruth Handler is introduced to provide Barbie with some heartfelt advice, which may be useful to her in the future.
Greta Gerwig has said that she wants to become a proficient studio director and Barbie shows that she is well on her way. The acting is great across the board, the extravagant production design is bright and shiny (and yes, at times extremely pink) and the numerous set pieces are handled very deftly by director of cinematography Rodrigo Prieto and Gerwig herself.
A special mention should go to star/producer Margot Robbie, who kept the project alive when it seemed bound to fail, and introduced Gerwig and Baumbach to the project.
Barbie is now expected to open with over 100 million dollars in the US alone and that success will be well deserved, since this is one of those rare movies that upon leaving the theater I immediately realized I want to see it again at some point in the not too distant future.