PG, 114 minutes
4 Stars
Review by © Jane Freebury
Just how does a professional bimbo some say set the feminist movement back 50 years get to be the centrepiece of a must-see movie? Even those who swore against watching it, now want to know what all the fuss is about as Barbie storms box-office records.
This improbable venture that sets out to view the iconic doll through a feminist lens, kicks off with an idea that anyone can relate to. Barbie realises that she is mortal, with cellulite and flat feet signalling imperfections that will lead to her demise. It is a non-hair-related malfunction worming its way into a sunny outlook on life expressed with a dazzling smile.
When Barbie first misspeaks with these irrepressible thoughts at her all-girl party, everyone freezes. That beauty fades is a subversive idea that makes no sense in Barbie Land.
Perish such a thought in a girl who has it all with the perfect face and figure, and the perfect guy in Ken, if only she wanted him. Barbie’s life is lived in a perfect world of plastic and pastel in which everyone, including the President in the Pink House, is female. It’s the guys who are at a loose end, with little to do but preen and bicker as they vie for female attention.
If it is difficult adjusting to the pastels and plastics of Barbie Land in the early scenes, where even the wheelie bins and shower nobs are pink, the incongruous gravitas of Helen Mirren’s voiceover isn’t any help. It’s another layer to the fun.
As doubt takes over, Barbie visits her deviant sister (Kate McKinnon, all spikey hair and punk attitude) for advice. Weird Barbie tells her she needs to pay the real world a visit to track down the source of the problem.
Ken’s awakening as a male as he is let in on the secret that patriarchy still rocks, is very funny
Her dejected admirer, Ken, stows away for the trip. Poor Ken can never get a look-in but when the pair reach the real world he discovers that as a male he has potential he never dreamed of. The path to this awakening is very funny.
As Ken observes men filling the gyms, corporate foyers, and construction sites of Los Angeles, aka the real world, he begins to get all the wrong ideas about himself and his dubious potential. He wants a job, and though no one will have him, he absorbs the advice that he need not try too hard because patriarchy is still flourishing. Men have found ways to hide their hegemony. This is the point that real-world, working mum Gloria (America Ferrera) drives home in her powerful monologue about the contradictions that all women, despite themselves, deal with in their lives.
It was a slinky, shocking pink gown that a breathless Marilyn Monroe wore for her showstopper in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in the 1950s, but even her iconic performance in that classic can be read through a feminist lens. Barbie, on the other hand, situates itself directly in feminist debates, asking the questions, asknowledging the contradictions.
Despite the girly pink froth, Barbie doesn’t duck the feminist debates or ignore the contradictions in women’s lives
Margot Robbie brings great heart and chutzpah to stereotypical Barbie, a mere blonde in need of affirmation in a world of multiple female ideals, but her character is rather one-dimensional. And Ryan Gosling is terrific as he brings Ken to life with his deft, sly, comic take on things in a sea of girly pink froth.
The screenplay by filmmakers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story) is a masterful balancing act, managing its contradictions in deft and supple ways, and telling a story against itself that culminates in a final line that must be one of the best in the business. The film has even found a way to make fleeting comment on motherhood and include among its characters some sweet little older ladies. The scope is ambitious yet delivered with a subtle touch by director Gerwig (Little Women) who has continued to impress since her first feature Ladybird.
At the end of the day, Barbie shows it is possible to deconstruct the Barbie ideal and keep her manufacturers, Mattel corporation, onside. Its success will be followed by slavish sequels and that is not a pleasant prospect, nor is the promotion of well-known brands offering their product in pink. Just who is going to try to put Barbie back in her box now?
Also published by Rotten Tomatoes