Barbie (2023) Review
Barbie is not a complex character nor is Ken. They have fairly pre-ordained roles and fit to any adventure their owner wants to set them on. Based on this fact does the film fit every viewer’s adventure it would like Barbie and Ken to go on? No it doesn’t, not even close.
director: Greta Gerwig
writers: Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach
starring: Margot Robbie & Ryan Gosling
genre: Comedy
released: July 9, 2023 (U.S.A.), July 20,2023 (Australia)
Having a toy be turned into a cinematic property has always been a risky proposition. How much control to be given to the studio production and how evolved should the plot be always are key questions. Barbie is one of those rare cases were enough control was given to the creative minds behind it in order to make a film not too simplistic and be on par in terms of pop culture messaging the status quo apparatus of Hollywood and Corporate America at the time of this review approve of. This results in a film that is not too complicated, however that wants to be and of which is its central issue. Barbie is not a complex character nor is Ken. They have fairly pre-ordained roles and fit to any adventure their owner wants to set them on. Based on this fact does the film fit every viewer’s adventure it would like Barbie and Ken to go on? No it doesn’t, not even close.
Story:
In the fictional world of Barbieland where dolls of real humans reside to live the reality of their toy characters narrative. Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives her day to day life with all the other Barbies and Kens without pain, sorrow or any negative emotions whatsoever. The world is run by the Barbies and it runs smoothly without issue. One day though Barbie starts having negative thoughts opening up the possibility of her malfunctioning as a toy. Weird Barbie tells her the only way to fix things is to go the real world where Barbies are played with. There she will have to find her owner and see why things went sour in the first place. By her side will be her trusty Ken (Ryan Gosling) to see if they can fix Barbie and along the way find out if the reality they live in should be the way it is or be changed entirely for good.
Thoughts:
The film starts off with footage of the genesis of Barbie from the trailer and sadly it lost its appeal quick. This is the issue when you use what you think is footage made for promotional material and is actual movie content. Moving onto the Barbieworld itself and the protagonist which is stereotypical Barbie. We follow her along her daily routine and slowly build the world rules around her. How all the Barbies interact with each other and with the other Kens. They act like their toy characters are expected to with set activities and roles. This first act goes by fairly quick with no real opportunity for any big laughs to be explored except one (flat feet scene at beach). Everything else has a fairly speedy pace and nothing is lingered upon to even have a chuckle in terms of seeing the absurdity of their world. The start does though have throwaway political lines at times which only gets worse as the film progresses. In general, the first act is too concerned with building the foundations of Barbieland then landing any of the jokes, getting to know more of the characters or the future arcs they will have. By the time some of the jokes do land and we start understanding the world. Weird Barbie has already propelled Stereotypical Barbie to the real world.
Once in the real world the comedy thankfully goes up on notch. The high mark being Ken not fully understanding the concept of patriarchy, however still running with it. As this creates all the best moments in the film and the best action/drama scenes for the Barbies and the Kens that come in the film’s third act. Seeing Ken fixate on horses and beer of all things is funny. His supporting cast also do a good job to compliment him in action and musical numbers as well. Not to mention it actually brings the real conflict between them and Barbie which is that all the Kens are treated as an afterthought by the Barbie’s. While this is slightly touched upon in the film it is heavily bypassed by focusing more on things such as the divide between the perfect world run by Barbies/women and the inperfect real world where power and influence is shared by both sexes. This is how the film frames it and finds many opportunities for characters to give monologues/speeches/diatribes about how things are unfair or what have you. These moments don't make the experience more meaningful, enlightening or even useful to the films narrative. A lot of it could have been omitted and we could have still had the film reach the same conclusion. This is where you realize it wasn’t necessary for the characters/story, but shoe horned because someone wanted politics to be center stage. By doing this the film sort of confuses itself by not knowing how to live with that fact and not even self address that the Barbies we’re advocating for a Barbie supremacy world over the Kens and that the Kens should be stopped as it would then be another form of supremacy. However again this point is bypassed to then suddenly focus on Barbie becoming a more real person with diverse feelings and realising what matters to her. This realization doesn’t come so much through experience but spiritual enlightenment via a character in the film who shall not be named so I don’t spoil the film further. This enlightenment makes her want to be real and a part of the flawed terrible real world. Which begs the question, is the real world then that terrible? A point will circle back to as we deal with some other not so interesting issues with the film that have to be mentioned.
One of which, is the human characters and how they tie into the story and influence things. They are easily the weakest points of the film and are not helped by being the mouthpieces of the divisive political rhetoric this film is infested with. Or, the most unrealistic, corny and unentertaining characters in comparison to the ensemble of Barbie and Ken characters. Actors such as Will Ferrel are a shadow of his prior self as the corporate head of Mattel and America Ferrera is a stereotype Mom unhappy with everything in life. Maybe the intention was to have the real world feel at times to be caricature of itself the same way the Barbie characters are to their world, but that also might be me reading to much into it. All the best moments anyway come from Barbie and the Kens. Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie both do their best for comedy and drama respectively. However, what they have to deal witht in terms of the writing/plotting is disappointing. Even in the second act we are being pushed along quickly from one lame gag/joke to the next. A good example of this would be Barbie and Ken getting arrested twice. No time was given to react to a situation such as this, as they just happen as with most things in the film.
Once we get back to Barbieland and the humans tag along. The film has finally traction and does its best job in terms of pacing, comedic delivery and drama. Even with the slight political push via the deprogramming of the Barbies. Which is slightly forgiven as it does lead to the best satirical moments of the film and actually plays well with the man versus woman stereotypes. With the Barbie mind games and Ken dance numbers being the most entertaining things in the entire film. It’s one of the few times where I finally was enjoying the film in the movie theatre and not overthinking things. And while the film's ending was more dramatic and preachy than the rest of the film it is still miles ahead of the beginning of the film that was lacking in quality and focus.
Overall, the film acts as if it knows what it wants to be and what world view it holds. However, at times they are too many conflicting messages and narrative decisions that create incongruities or contradiction of sorts. Such as the ending of the film that creates serious doubts about how the film commented the whole time on about culture and politics from one perspective but then had Barbie go in the complete opposite direction. As Barbie at the end of the film starts valuing what it means to be human and has visions of marriage, family and kids. Not board rooms, amphitheaters or anything else. So it is kind of is confusing to understand what the fuss was by the production of the film to interject so much content that will be considered divisive rather than just focusing on a more satirical angle of the material. This social commentary takes much of satisfaction away and it is odd the film tells you on the one hand to value politics, economic power roles and men being bad but then its ending through its hero tells you not to. However, then again forces down to us a message of non conformity to old social roles, however then accepting those social roles via again Barbie accepting the real world. In the end this type of back forth messaging is just too much too swallow.
In retrospect some of the core ideas at work on paper would have sounded like a great pitch to a studio and test audiences. However, it is this divide that has now been created by Hollywood were they don’t make films for the mass anymore that has led to these films being less and less palpable with their old key demographic. Until they realise their foul play at work then they shouldn’t be surprised by the silent majority not being so silent any longer with these type of pop culture events and the outcomes that are created.
Verdict:
Enjoying this film is dependent on more than a few factors and will predominately be influenced by which cultural camp you are in and what your expectations of this film are. Especially based on the marketing of the film that showed it to be a mindless Hollywood popcorn flick instead of the satirical/social political message machine that it truly is. This imbalance of too many different elements from messaging to tone hinder enjoyment by all crowds and caters more to one demographic or maybe better yet puts itself against another. This push for division via politics and pop culture is a dangerous mix and will prove detrimental in the future to our society at large and maybe even to Barbie itself.
Personal Rating:
1.5 out of 5 Stars