Review: Barbie

Believe the hype. It’s a must-watch this winter.

Words by Zara Richards

Trying to escape my Sunday scaries, I found myself in a cinema, popcorn and frozen coke in tow, ready to have my brain bamboozled by 114 minutes of pink and feel-good messaging from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

And boy, did it deliver. The film opens with a scene-by-scene re-enactment of the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey before we happily find ourselves in Barbieland – a cotton-candy-coloured world where women (or Barbie) can be whatever they want, and men (Ken, duh) are just hapless characters carved from plastic. In the following super-saccharine scenes, we meet our protagonists – bouncy hair and blue-eyed Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) and peroxide blonde beach boy, Ken (Ryan Gosling) – and learn the plight of feminism is over thanks to Mattel’s billion-dollar doll.

However, this dreamy version of reality unravels when Barbie suddenly gets cellulite, flat feet and fleeting thoughts of death. Startled by these atypical developments, Barbie learns they’re because of a rip between their pink-saturated planet and the Real World. The only way to fix said rip is to take a trip to Earth. So, Barbie and tagalong Ken visit Venice Beach for a journey of self-discovery, where they meet the mother-daughter duo Gloria and Sasha (played by America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt) and go head-to-head with the patriarchy.

Does our pink-clad heroine succeed at conquering the centuries-long battle against the patriarchy? That’s for you to find out.

What you do need to know is that Barbie is clever, quick-witted and positively fizzing with fun. The film is sometimes a little too on the nose with highlighting that it does indeed have a deeper meaning. But by wrapping its feminist message in mockery, shades of magenta and ‘Kenergy’,
it keeps the pace light and audience engaged.

Director Greta Gerwig excels in nudging the viewer to take a closer look at themselves and societal structures without ever losing the joyful silliness of imaginary play. There’s substance if you seek it, but if you’re after a smooth brain watch, you can switch off, too. Put simply, Barbie is the perfect pink-saturated antidote to your Sunday scaries!

Believe the hype. It’s a must-watch this winter.