Time: 114 Minutes
Age Rating: PG – Violence & coarse language
Cast:
Margot Robbie as Barbie
Ryan Gosling as Ken
America Ferrera as Gloria
Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie
Michael Cera as Allan
Issa Rae as President Barbie
Rhea Perlman as the spirit of Ruth Handler
Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel
Director: Greta Gerwig

I certainly knew of Barbie, but never played with the dolls myself. However, the people involved with the upcoming live action adaptation had me interested, with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling playing Barbie and Ken respectively, as well as Greta Gerwig directing. Overall, I thought it was pretty good.

I’m not familiar with the Barbie lore, but you really don’t have to know much about it in order to enjoy the movie. One might ask as to how makes a live action film based on Barbie. Greta Gerwig’s answer is to take a satirical, self-aware and meta approach. You could compare it to The LEGO Movie but taken a step further, considering that Barbie travelling to the real world is a major part and Mattel is a corporation in canon. The jokes are pretty funny, the gags taking place in Barbieland particularly work well. However they can also become a little hit or miss at times, some of the jokes are a bit too niche and online for their own good. For the first half, I was consistently liking the movie, from the point of where it starts with Barbie in Barbieland, to her and Ken going out into the real world. However, the second half is where it takes a turn and goes into decline a little, and that’s where the screenplay is at its clunkiest. When compared to Gerwig’s past movies with Little Women and Lady Bird, Barbie does feel a little limited. The actual commentary is a bit of a mixed bag; there are parts whether they could’ve gone deeper, its not subtle and its fairly simplistic.

That being said, you have to take into account the fact that this isn’t only a movie somewhat aimed at younger people, but also based on a Mattel product for kids. Its unrealistic to expect a branded film to be very radical, and you shouldn’t expect a movie with the Mattel logo in the opening credits to offer a searing feminist insight. For what its worth, Gerwig still gives the movie far more substance than a standard Barbie movie would have. Plenty of topics are tackled including self-purpose, existential crises, feminism and the patriarchy. The messaging is positive and pretty important, with it being about the importance of loving and understanding oneself. I don’t want it to sound like I’m damning with fine praise, because I’m not doing it here. It is genuinely one of the more inventive and funny studio comedies to come out in recent years. It honestly gets to a point where I feel like adults would get more out of it than children, especially when it comes to the jokes and the story. Still, there’s clearly a disconnect to Mattel’s commercial appeal and what Greta Gerwig wants to do. Even at the end, it is trying somewhat to put a positive spin on the Mattel Corporation, and those moments take me out of the movie. It doesn’t help that narratively, they are also the worst part of the movie. There’s a subplot about the Mattel corporation in the story, and they are easily the worst part. The jokes aren’t funny, and they distract from the rest of the film.

The cast are good, especially Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken respectively. This is among Robbie’s very best work; her comedic timing is perfect and she equally sells the emotion. Barbie’s journey of identity and self-discovery is told in such a meaningful way, and she plays it with such nuance that you can buy into it. Her performance is definitely key to the overall movie working as well as it does. Gosling is a scene stealer as Ken; he is hilarious, entertaining and incredibly dedicated to his part, with perfect line deliveries. It’s not a slight on his performance but the movie potentially relies on him a bit too much and he kind of overshadows things, especially in the third act. There’s also a lot of other actors who do well in their parts. They don’t all get a great amount of screentime but some of them get a moment to shine, with America Ferrera and Michael Cera being the standouts.

Greta Gerwig’s direction is really great. Everything on a technical level when it comes to Barbieland is pretty much perfect. The production design and costume design are on point, it’s very colourful, and there’s so much attention not detail. I especially like how clearly practical it is instead of just using CGI and calling it a day. As said before, there are parts where it moves to the real world, and those scenes don’t as good. No doubt it’s an intentional choice to make it look mundane in comparison, but perhaps does its job a little too well. The musical and dance numbers are really good, I’d love to see Gerwig helm a musical. There’s also a solid soundtrack throughout.

While not all the jokes hit and it loses momentum at around the halfway point, Barbie is fun, vibrant, well directed, and has a good cast, especially with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the lead roles. Admittedly it does feel restricted, far more so compared to Greta Gerwig’s previous two movies. But she made a far better movie than you’d expect considering what it’s based on. Well worth checking out.