Beautiful, brilliant, Barbie. The highly anticipated “Barbie” movie from Greta Gerwig was one that has been on my Letterboxd watch list since the first trailer was released Dec. 16, and in no way did it disappoint. Between the set design and costumes — accurate to the dolls and playhouses created by Mattel — not only was “Barbie” easy on the eyes, but pulled at every heartstring possible.
The movie follows Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, on her journey to save Barbieland. Alongside other notable Barbies — such as President Barbie (Issa Rae), Diplomat Barbie (Nicola Coughlan), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbie (Ritu Arya), Lawyer Barbie (Sharon Rooney), and a cast of Kens: Ryan Gosling leading the charge, closely followed by Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, and Kingsley Ben-Adir — the movie perfectly executes an inclusive and fun environment. Every person on the screen was perfectly costumed and scripted to a tee, even Allan (Michael Cera), a discontinued doll, who brought the awkward tension of this individual character to life.
Despite Barbie’s consistently perfect days, she discovers one morning that her reality has drastically changed, her perfectly formed feet become flat, she falls out of her house and her breakfast is burnt. Normal to us, maybe, but not for the perfection within Barbieland. She heads to see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) who represents a Barbie that had been played with a little too roughly. With colored and mangled hair and sharpie drawings on her face, McKinnon’s character was the perfect edge to Barbieland.
Weird Barbie explains to Barbie that the only way that she can restore things to how they were is to go to the human world and find the doll version of herself, as whoever is playing with her is who is causing these changes. With that, we are off.
Through a combination of automotives, rocket ships, boats, vans and roller skates, Barbie and Ken make it to the real world, and are quickly awakened by the reality that is California and the United States. The two have very different experiences in this real world. Barbie is cat-called, ogled at, and overall disrespected; meanwhile Ken, for the first time, is addressed respectfully, listened to, and realizes that there are places in which men can be in control. Though it is not pleasant to watch these events, it is interesting to watch Barbie realize the cruelty of the world outside of Barbieland, and for Ken to see the benefits of men in that same world.
After an eventful day of Ken and Barbie trying to find who is playing with the Barbie doll, the CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell) along with his entire all-male executive board, becomes aware that they are in the real world, and begins to hunt them down to send them back to Barbieland. I was worried that Ferrell would be playing another father unwilling to share his hobbies as seen in “The Lego Movie,” but I was pleasantly surprised at his character in “Barbie”, which stays light and comedic throughout the movie.
Barbie ends up being captured by the CEO and other Mattel employees but escapes with the help of Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). Barbie takes them back to Barbieland, only to realize that Ken has beat her back. Though his understanding of patriarchy includes not much more than horses and men being in power, the Kens, led by Gosling, alter Barbieland to fit their idea of patriarchy and take over their homes, leaving the Barbies brainwashed into a life of servitude for them.
Through the collaborations of the Barbies alongside Allan, Gloria, and Sasha, they carefully outsmart the Kens and aid the Barbies to remember who they are: doctors, lawyers, Nobel-Prize winners, and so much more. They band together and successfully restore Barbieland to what it was before.
The emotional weight of this movie was perfectly balanced with the comedic timing of the narration by Helen Mirren, special effects and dialogue of the characters. Ferrera’s role as a mother who is trying to reconnect with her daughter, while also doubling as a strong female in the real world, is crafted in a way that can give any mother, daughter, or person watching the movie a newfound respect for women of all ages.
She explains to Barbie about the real world and what it really means to be a woman, giving a powerful speech about the intricacies of existing as a female and how these expectations are basically requirements of their everyday lives. She points out the fact that they are told how to dress, how to speak, how to hold themselves, how to behave and how to accept the lack of control that women have in the real world.
Themes of feminism and the patriarchy are carefully and expertly placed throughout the entire movie, as the Kens’ position in Barbieland mimics the position women hold in the real world, and also shows the introduction of patriarchy to a matriarchy and how that plays out. Watching the roles reversed in a movie about Mattel toys is not what I thought this movie would be about, but I would be lying if I said that I was not completely moved by a movie about Barbie dolls. So rarely do we see movies that bring people together, especially women, and the opening weekend numbers alone speak to how well this movie has done this.
Lastly, I wish to applaud Greta Gerwig, who I know is receiving a large amount of praise for “Barbie,” but I don’t think any amount will ever be enough. I would have never guessed that a movie about a Mattel toy would include such an impactful cast, soundtrack, writing and overall message to walk away with, but “Barbie” will definitely be a movie that people will talk about for a long time.
