directed by Greta Gerwig
written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
It took me a while to catch the biggest live-action movie of 2023 in theaters, but as a father of three daughters, all of whom own or have owned Barbie dolls, I was not about to skip this one. Fortunately, it was worth the trip, and the price of admission.
Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives the perfect life in Barbieland along with many other Barbies, who basically run the place, and the Kens who live there but don't really do anything but hang out at the beach. Foremost among the Kens is the one played by Ryan Gosling, who basically lives for Barbie's affirmation, even though she barely even acknowledges his presence.
Then, rather abruptly, Barbie's perfect existence is disrupted when strange things start happening to her; she starts thinking about death, her perpetually tiptoed feet are suddenly flat, and she finds that she has (gasp) cellulite. On the advice of the other Barbies, she pays a visit to weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) who lives on the edge of Barbieland. Weird Barbie tells Stereotypical Barbie that the reason she's experiencing these things is that the person playing with her in the real world is undergoing these experiences and advises Stereotypical Barbie to go to the Real World and work things out with her "player." Stereotypical Barbie makes the trip to what turns out to be Los Angeles, only to discover that Ken has stowed away.
What greets Barbie and Ken as they arrive in a real world is an experience that will change both their lives forever.
I had a good time with this one, I have to say.
This movie is, in my opinion, neither the masterpiece its most ardent fans proclaim it to be nor is it the apocalyptic disaster that right-wing haters decry it to be. It isn't "mid" either but a genuinely enjoyable, funny time at the theaters. I enjoyed the visuals, Margot Robbie's and Ryan Gosling's acting, and even the performances of the peripheral characters like Ariana Greenblatt's rebellious teenager, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie and Simu Liu as a "rival" Ken. Gosling, for me, was the absolute star of the show with his comedic chops on full display as well as his show-stopping musical number, which, notably, only he had.
I honestly didn't give too much thought to the supposed "woke" or feminist subtext because if I'm honest I don't feel the movie took itself nearly as seriously as its most rabid critics claim. I can write a whole other post about why those on the right are being complete idiots about this film (and probably will).
That said, it does have its faults. For example, co-writer Noah Baumbach stinks up the dialogue every now and then with his pretentious, verbose dialogue, such as when Barbie, out of nowhere, spouts out some self-aware quip with words whipped out of a thesaurus. It was funny enough as a joke one time, but it happens two or three times in the film. I found it mildly annoying.
The real crime for me, though, was how the filmmakers cast Will Ferrell but barely gave him anything to do. We're talking about a generation's funnyman, but he barely has anything funny to say or do. They could have easily cast anyone else in the role and it wouldn't have made any difference.
All told, though, I had a lot of fun watching the movie and was glad to have had some quality father-daughter time with my girls.
8/10
