Life seems to be perfect for Barbie in Barbieland, where every day is wonderful and just like the previous day. But when she starts to have dark thoughts and notices some physical imperfections, she has to travel to the real world to find who caused the problems for her.
Barbie has proved to be a marketing triumph. The early trailers clearly showed that this would be a pastiche, and articles about how sexual stereotypes were going to be parodied spread through the media. As the release date moved closer, the advertising and promotional work was aimed at a younger audience, the more traditional Barbie fan. The result of that were extraordinary box office numbers for its opening weekend. I saw it at a 2pm weekday showing, and the screening was almost full with a diverse crowd.
To an extent, the film itself, written by Greta Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach and directed by Gerwig, tries to court both audiences, but works much better when it is skewering sexism in an unsubtle but often funny way. For example, late in the movie there is an amusing musical interlude where the various Kens perform a song that is a nice parody of the whiny male singer songwriters that are bafflingly popular these days. But that immediately transitions into not one but two song and dance sequences aimed at an undiscerning audience that seem to go on forever.
The casting is spot on. Margot Robbie is perfect for Barbie and Ryan Gosling shows his comedic talents as Ken. America Ferrera is excellent as the woman who inadvertently causes Barbie’s crisis, as is Ariana Greenblatt as her daughter. But it is Kate McKinnon who steals a lot of scenes as Weird Barbie.
A little too long, despite one of the best gags being the last line in the film, and definitely hit and miss but still a lot of fun.
Rating: 7 out of 10