Barbie - Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

GRETA Gerwig’s deceptively breezy Barbie is that rare blockbuster: original, fun but with plenty to say.

The writer-director has - together with co-scribe Noah Baumbach and star and producer Margot Robbie - taken Mattel’s iconic toy and turned it into something that is arguably much greater than the sun of its pink plastic parts.

Barbie takes aim at gender politics, identity, corporate dominance and more, while still dazzling audiences with large doses of crowd pleasing comedy, visual bombast and catchy songs.

And while it doesn’t always provide a seamless mix, its ambition is such that it mostly rises above some of its more fumbled moments.

The story opens in Barbieland, as Robbie’s stereotypical Barbie embarks on a crisis of identity and existence that prompts her to enter the real world to find the disillusioned human who has caused her suffering.

With Ryan Gosling’s adoring Ken in tow, the two enter a reality that shakes their faith in what they thought they knew about the world that Barbie had ‘created’.

For Ken, in particular, it prompts the realisation that the patriarchy rules - and that he doesn’t have to exist in Barbie’s shadow, triggering a race against time to prevent Barbieland becoming the domain of its Kens.

The ensuing story often feels like a whirlwind of energy given the wealth of ideas driving it, which incorporates everything from knowing movie nods and takedowns (everything from 2001 to The Godfather gets a mention), to sly corporate satire and intelligent observations on toxic masculinity and feminism.

There’s also some neat genre subversion that toys with blockbuster convention. Hence, when at the top of its game, Barbie really delivers and is worthy of the hype and adulation surrounding it.

It’s just occasionally niggling that it can’t always pull it off, given that it is also the product of a major studio as well as a massive toy company. There are times when the message delivery is either too broad or too obvious, while the inevitable product placement serves as a reminder that this is still a package designed to make money (no matter how ironically packaged it is delivered).

It is, perhaps, a shortcoming that would have been impossible to avoid. But it sometimes jars with the film’s smarter elements.

That said, Gerwig is fleet footed enough not to derail her own momentum and has delivered a film that feels as fresh as it is surprisingly vital. She also provides a platform for some terrific performances, with Robbie and Gosling on scorching form and the likes of America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon and Michael Cera also standing out.

The result is an undeniably impressive and hugely enjoyable achievement that confidently surpasses the initial expectations surrounding it, when first announced as a concept.