(PG) ★★★★
Director: Greta Gerwig.
Cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren.
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| "Why walk when you can blade, dude?" |
As they say in the classics, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Mattel doesn't give a shit about what they say in the classics. It absolutely owns cake and eats cake here.
By that I mean Mattel has somehow managed to get its most iconic toy into a film that both praises and shreds said toy. The movie is an intelligent satire that deals with the very feminism Barbie undermines and the patriarchy the doll upholds, but it's also a daft goof, filled with dance battles and melodrama. It is a giant ad designed to sell toys, while also pointing out how inane and ridiculous it all is. It even lampoons Mattel itself as a gormless money-hungry corporation, while still celebrating the role it played in creating a cultural icon.
How is this possible? The answer is director/writer Greta Gerwig.
The story follows Stereotypical Barbie (Robbie), who lives one perfect day after another in Barbieland, until some un-Barbie-like thoughts begin to creep into her mind. Desperate to continue her idyllic life, she and her acquaintance Ken (Gosling) must travel to The Real World, where they both learn some brutal truths about how things really work.
The appointment of indie darling Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women) and her partner-in-crime Noah Baumbach to write Barbie seemed almost akin to asking Wes Anderson to direct a Fast & Furious movie, but it pays off in droves. Within whatever limits Mattel set, they've crafted a script that's a cutting examination of gender roles and societal expectations that's also filled with air-headed charm. The film gets how problematic Barbie has been, and how emblematic it is of deeper problems in society, and that drives the entire show. Gerwig has a limited yet still startling amount of freedom here, and she goes for broke. She's made a Barbie film that somehow appeals to the grown-up angry woman and the optimistic little girl she once was, all at the same time.
That Gerwig manages to balance the hard-hitting feminist themes with an airy, sparkly pinkness is no mean feat. The amazing production design certainly helps. It revels in the fakeness and has a ball apeing the OG toys. Barbieland is a marvel of set construction and dressing, while the wardrobe department has been working overtime. And it make The Real World look all the more drab by comparison, even though it's just, well, real.
None of this precarious juggling of tones would work without having a Barbie that can deal with both the earnest sentimentality and the ditzy goofiness. Thankfully Robbie is more than up to the task. She delivers an iconic performance in an iconic role, perfectly articulating the humour, naivety and emotion required.
Gosling is also in fine form in arguably the tougher role. Ken's place in the film is tricky to balance, and Gosling seems to thrive in making Ken unlikeable. There are no sympathetic male characters here - sorry guys - and Ken is one of the worst, maintaining a level of idiocy throughout that is hilarious, thanks in no small part to Gosling.
The other standout is Ferrera, who is a grounding presence the latter half of the film can revolve around as it almost spins off its axis. Her performance and her character ensure the final act doesn't go completely off the rails, which is helpful because it's the final act where the film struggles. As any gymnast will tell you, it's hard to stick the landing, and Barbie doesn't quite know how to get its slanted plastic feet on the ground. Act three drags on, putting the film in danger of outstaying its welcome.
Ferrell's presence, as Mattel's CEO, is also tricky to handle because he leans fully into the wackiness. This helps prevent the film from making Mattel anything other than bumbling plot drivers, as opposed to out-and-out villains. It's probably a fair assumption Mattel had a say in limiting the evilness of its own portrayal, because the company's role in the movie is key yet somehow feels tangential.
Barbie is funny and whip-smart. Could it hit hard and push further? Absolutely. But that ignores how remarkable it is that this film got made - they made a Barbie movie for grown-ups about feminism and the patriarchy. Let that sink in for a moment. Absolutely no one had that on their bingo card five or ten years ago.
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