OK, how do I start something like this? Do I say something about how there are two big releases this weekend, namely Barbie and Oppenheimer? Do I mention how I never thought I would have even considered seeing a Barbie movie until I learned it was being directed by Greta Gerwig or all people with a script co-written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, probably the last two people I would have expected to be involved in such a thing? You know what? I’ll just mention how, many years ago, my niece was playing Barbies with my sister-in-law’s niece, and I kept asking them who was winning. Seeing small girls react with weird frustration sure was entertaining that day.
I’ll also add this was probably one of the most crowded movie experiences I’ve seen since John Wick: Chapter 4, and the seat I reserved in the 300 seat IMAX screening room for Oppenheimer is looking equally crowded.
Barbie (Margot Robbie) is a doll living in Barbieland where the various dolls in Mattel’s Barbie line all live and work in life-sized replicas of Barbie’s playsets. Most of the women are Barbies while most of the men are Kens. This Barbie is Stereotypical Barbie, meaning she’s more or less the default. Meanwhile, her main Ken (Ryan Gosling) just lives to get a look from her and maybe spend some time with her, but she’s too busy have a girl’s night every night and telling him he can’t stay in her dreamhouse because, well, it’s her dreamhouse. He has a home of his own presumably somewhere. But then Barbie notices something is off. Suddenly, she’s thinking about death and her feet are alarmingly flat. After taking advice from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), Barbie decides to go into the real world. See, there’s a girl playing with this Barbie, and this play is affecting Barbie herself. The only way to fix it is to find out why this little girl is upset. After all, as the narrator (Helen Mirren) explains, the Barbies all believe they inspired girls in the real world to whatever they want, so surely the women in the real world will, like the Barbies, run things.
Oh, and Ken tags along. Barbie isn’t necessarily happy about that, but she won’t kick him out of the car or something as they start their journey. It turns out that this isn’t the first time a doll has escaped Barbieland, and Mattel’s board of directors, led by the CEO (Will Ferrell) need to put Barbie back. See, the more time Barbie interacts with the real world, the more that affects Barbieland and, as it stands, the real world. Barbie, meanwhile, learns she maybe didn’t have the positive impact on real world little girls that she thought she did. As for Ken, well, no one really cares about Ken, and that’s going to lead to even more problems for everyone…
Greta Gerwig made is clear before the movie came out that, as she holds feminist beliefs, she was going to slip some feminist ideas in, and she does. Kens are treated basically as accessories, and while taking a Barbie into the real world isn’t good, it’s much worse for a Ken to go there. And for all that the “real world” is a bit of a shock for Barbie, it’s not that different in some ways. The Mattel executives, led by Ferrell, are every bit as ridiculous and silly as the inhabitants of Barbieland. Robbie is good in the lead roll, and she mostly plays it straight opposite more ridiculous characters, particularly Gosling’s Ken. The movie is over-the-top, ridiculous, and more than willing to take a good hard look at Barbie and everything she may or may not represent.
Mostly, it’s fun, and I did laugh a few times. I will add that Ferrell’s CEO and the other executives were played a bit too broadly compared to what I might have expected for the “real world,” and the movie did feel a bit long as it started to come to its conclusion. Plus, for all that the movie does have some somewhat sharp things to say about Barbie and what she may represent, this is still a movie approved by Mattel. The executives are not the villains here. Barbie is still something to be celebrated as an idea. But it’s still a rather fun and silly movie. It’s just a wee bit heavier than it appears to be.
Grade: B
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