Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Is an Existential Crisis-Fueled ‘Pinocchio’ in High Heels | Review
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike by a member of SAG-AFTRA. This film would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike for fair wages and working conditions. No money was exchanged for this review.
Do you ever think about dying? Well, Barbie does! The iconic “Stereotypical Barbie” (Margot Robbie) is on the verge of gaining sentient thought and that could spell trouble for all of the other Barbies in Barbie Land who just want to go to work, have slumber parties, and send their Kens home to wherever they sleep at night. That is the loose premise of Greta Gerwig’s live-action tale about the beloved blonde trailblazer, which she penned alongside Noah Baumbach.
Like all of the other Barbies in Barbie Land, Robbie-Barbie’s existence is pretty perfect. She wakes up every morning in her Dream Home, perfectly coifed and perfectly perky, and perfectly prepared for another day of Barbies reaching for the stars. The only real issue she has to deal with, aside from not being quite as remarkable as her Barbie peers, is that she’s just not as into her Ken (Ryan Gosling) the way he’s into her. But her picture-perfect Stepford Wives existence quickly turns into The Truman Show, when she becomes a little too aware of the pesky human emotions of her doll’s owner, which sends her (and Gosling-Ken) on a mission to save Barbie Land before it is too late.
The stark contrast between the plastic pastel perfection of Barbie Land and the bleak reality of Venice Beach is expertly crafted, both with the cinematography and with a script that quickly reveals the harsh truths of patriarchy to Barbie. Barbie and Ken’s sojourn into the real world is rather short-lived, cutting short some opportunities to really play up how wild it would be for a doll to gain sentience and walk around California. Even with the introduction of Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) the film is forced to make some massive leaps in logic, in order to make the story keep moving in the right direction.
Image via Warner Bros. Discovery
Barbie is the second film this year to mask an introspective look at the human condition behind vibrant pastels, and while Barbie does succeed where Asteroid City largely failed, it still misses the mark in a lot of ways. The film implies that Robbie-Barbie’s emotions are coming from the owner of her doll, which is logic that is abandoned by the end of the film. Instead, we’re just supposed to assume that this Barbie has been feeling inadequate for a while and longing for something more real. “Stereotypical Barbie” was always a blank slate—a doll that you could dress up and give her any career, so it doesn’t necessarily make sense that her doll type makes her feel like she can’t do anything when she’s the only doll with unlimited potential. It doesn’t help that this is a plot point that is never really shown in the film beyond conjecture.
Barbie rushes past vital plot points, allowing instead for the audience to draw conclusions about motivations and character in hopes that we’re all on the same page. The first two acts feel like they’re headed in one direction, but once it arrives at the final act, Barbie starts to fall apart like a child who has run out of time to make her make-believe make sense. Barbie’s emotional arc is largely undercut by Ken’s subplot, which seems counterintuitive to the film’s main theme. Ahead of the film’s release, the studio revealed Ken’s musical number which very clearly showcases his antagonistic turn, so it’s not a spoiler to discuss how it detracts from the larger themes of Barbie.
By making Ken the sort of “villain” of Barbie’s story, the film is forced to relegate a lot of time to his story to make his turn believable. While entertaining, it does overshadow the really compelling existential crisis that Barbie is going through. Perhaps Mattel wasn’t keen on their stuffed suits being painted as the villain, so someone had to muck things up for the drama. While Gosling-Ken’s beach with Ken (Simu Liu) is very amusing, some of the Kens vs. Kens chaos and the nonsensical Will Ferrell-led Mattel exec subplot could’ve easily been trimmed to give the film more time to develop Gloria and Sasha’s relationship or better showcase why Barbie arrives at her final decision. There are a lot of really great ideas thrown at the audience, but the emotional beats get lost in the ever-moving goalpost, leaving them to draw conclusions on their own about what incited each character’s reaction.
Image via Warner Bros. Discovery
After managing to be a career woman and make time for romance as a doll for the better part of her existence, Barbie tragically falls victim to the mainstream girlbossification edict of “strong women need no romance,” by opting to shaft the whole Barbie and Ken of it all. It works, in terms of what this campy piece of cinema is aiming to do, but it undercuts the idea that you can have it all. Must everything be so nihilistic, even when it’s wrapped in pastel pleasure?
Barbie plays fast and loose with its magical rules of existence, much like a child does when coming up with new stories with her Barbies, but this ultimately means audiences shouldn’t think too hard about the film. Which is ironic, considering how pseudo-intellectual the film wants to be. It checks all the right boxes, both with its meta-commentary and the way it sticks its nose up at the “fake woke” youths that think Barbie is a bimbo, but then it walks back a lot of these ideas. One wrong, existential thought and Barbie Land does fall into rack and ruin, and it’s all Barbie’s fault for not loving Ken! Barbie’s rallying cry, through the wise wisdom of a real woman, is inherently feminist and wildly relevant, but it forgets that feminism isn’t about one gender being the sole authority—it’s about equality.
Messy magical rules and political statements are enough to make this Barbie roll her eyes, even if the film is ridiculously funny. The humor masks the glaring issues with the narrative and plot, which helps to keep the film as the crowd-pleaser the people were promised. Just don’t look for a deeper meaning behind Pinocchio's—or rather Barbie’s—delusions of grandeur.
Image via Warner Bros. Discovery
The film’s script is very tongue-in-cheek about a lot of Barbie lore—from Sugar’s Daddy to Ken’s very good buddy Allan—but it misses some really neat opportunities in order to make the final act come together. Gosling-Ken’s entire personality seems to be developed around his passion for horses, despite his profession being “Beach,” which seems out of sync, when all of the other Kens seem content with their professions. There have also been several equestrian Barbies over the years—and “real” horses you could buy too—so why did no one think to matchmake him with a better-suited Barbie and allow them to ride off into the sunset? Not to mention the fact that a few nods to the vast Barbie animated universe and computer and video games could’ve been neat.
Barbie is a delightfully campy film, with glorious costuming, that will make you wonder how it ever got made. The humor is the perfect blend of mature, but not too mature, and the bits never go on too long. Robbie is utterly delightful as Barbie, bringing her unique brand of powerful performance and graceful looks to the role, which helps her really feel like the doll we grew up playing with. Gosling is hilarious as Ken, going just to the edge of “over-the-top” without careening over into the truly absurd. If La La Land taught us anything, it’s that he’s rather skilled at playing the male lead who feels trapped in the shadow of his better half, who is also better off without him.
Barbie is bound to be a box office success, though its oddball humor, visual styling, and existentialism feel more like an inbound cult classic than an international blockbuster.
FINAL VERDICT: B
