It is another perfect day in Barbie World.  Barbie (Margot Robbie) wakes up, has a perfect shower, dresses in her perfect outfit, enjoys a perfect breakfast, and waves to her friends and neighbors from her perfect car on the way to the beach where she will spend her day.  It is the same day, every day, until one morning Barbie wakes up with some feelings of existential dread and thoughts of death.  She visits Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) and learns that these thoughts are because the girl playing with her in “The Real World” is projecting them onto her as a doll and that she must travel outside of Barbie World to Los Angeles and help this girl overcome whatever she is feeling if she ever wants to have her perfect life back. 

Greta Gerwig dives into the Mattel Toy Chest with Barbie from a script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach.  The Warner Brothers’ released crowd-pleaser clocks in at 114 minutes and the massive pastel-pink marketing campaign launched by the studio has clearly paid off.  Opening to the tune of $162.0 million, it became the highest-grossing debut of a female-directed film, dethroning Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s $153.4 million Captain Marvel (2019) and Patty Jenkins’ 103.2 million Wonder Woman (2017) opening.  What is even more notable is that Gerwig’s feature achieved this number with a very low PLF footprint as those screens had already been allocated to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer so much of that take was comprised of standard 2D tickets.  Audiences showed that there was room for both titles at the multiplexes – and many art houses jumped at the chance to get a piece of the “Barbenheimer” action, too – as the pair contributed to the 4th biggest box office weekend in history. 

While it may be easy to write off the idea of the film as a live-action adaptation of a clearance bin DVD, nothing could be further from the truth as Gerwig continues her journey of examining the trials of coming of age making Barbie a natural extension of her shown interests.  The project had been long gestating by Mattel and the stars aligned so that it could finally go into production with Robbie continuing her white-hot streak of working with our modern auteurs by taking on the title role as one of the most recognizable toy brands in the world.  Her performance is full of charm as she brings the plastic doll to life and fills the screen with her magnetism.  The role is demanding of the actress who must keep the pristine smile on her face for much of the film, but as the thoughts of dread begin to pervade, she must maintain the smile as a mask lest she be a damper on girl’s night.  It is incredible how well she is able to regulate the minute details of her performance so that she is not playing too strongly or weakly in any one way; specifically impressive as she is able to balance the strict rigidity required to live in the imaginative Barbie World with the dread of these intrusive thoughts and the growing allure of her own agency. Maybe things will not be “perfect” anymore as she has come to know them, but things will be what she makes of it; a hard lesson for all of us as we grow up. 

It is not until she travels to Los Angeles that the performance loses some of its more physical elements, though thankfully none of the charm, as she is now fully human instead of an animate doll.  This transition really allows Robbie to stretch as a comic performer and her timing could not be better as she navigates the careful realm of being a character that has been thrust into a whole new world of which they are unaware while not coming off as, for lack of a better term, the stereotypical blonde bimbo.  It is also where Gerwig and Baumbach can begin setting up longer jokes for payoff in the third act when we return to Barbie World, and they also make their most pointed commentary about traditional gender norms and standards in an evolving and modern society.  There are definite points here where the film, scenes, and individual jokes could have been tightened up a little bit for a much snappier film that hits harder and faster, but what was delivered is far more than serviceable.  

Los Angeles is also where we meet the mother and daughter pairing of Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt).  While the film is undeniably Robbie’s vehicle, Ferrera never gives up any of her spotlight while on screen and there is a showstopping moment late in the film shared between the two that serves as the turning point for the third act.  Ferrera delivers a moving monologue about the paradox of existing as a woman with today’s dueling expectations of pressuring women to become mothers but not spend all their time fussing over their kids, of being sure to dress well and stay made-up while not being so overdone that you are showing off, of being confident yet whenever you state your point you are labeled as demanding.  It is the thesis statement of the film and it is delivered in such frank terms that there is no denying its message because the screenwriting team wanted to make sure there was no ambiguity here and Ferrara delivers it with the appropriate amount of gravity and ferocity which it deserves. 

With a renewed sense of power about them, the Barbies make plans to overthrow the patriarchy which was installed by Ken (Ryan Gosling) after returning from his trip to the real world.  Barbie is, rightfully, Barbie’s movie, and even within the lore of the toy, Ken is just Ken, so it makes sense that Gosling’s performance is incredibly one-note.  It is still a grating performance and while it appears to have been constructed this way intentionally, the amount of screen time which he is given in the bloated film is a glaring strike against it.  Next to the topical humor, Ken is the next biggest element that needed to be trimmed down in the edit to get this film to a breezy 90-100 minutes and make for a much more enjoyable experience as Gosling never quite reaches the level of camp which Robbie is operating at.  Again, it is hard to say that Gosling is doing anything particularly wrong, but simply put, the role was given far too much screen time without enough development across his floundering arc.  It is not all the male characters, though, that suffer this fate; there is just enough of Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) that his bumbling can be established but not overdone to great effect, and if anything, the film needed a little more of Allan (Michael Cera) who in the lore is even just an even further removed consequence of Barbie’s existence as “Ken’s Friend.” 

The idea that without Barbie, Ken does not exist – and by extension, without Ken, Allan does not exist – is not played with too much in the film despite the great potential for a crumbling Barbie World while Barbie is out in the Real World having been expelled from “Eden” for daring to think.  Ultimately, that is not the film that Gerwig and Baumbach wanted to make, but the concept would have fit well into the candy-coated nightmare logic that they did establish.  The biggest key to understanding and enjoying the film is that, like eavesdropping on a child’s long game of imagination, anything and everything is possible, and the consequences can be both wild and nonexistent at the same time.  Growing up can be scary, and Barbie can be a tool to help inspire and guide young people through the confusing years.  It makes sense then that the fears of change, of the unknown, of being able to measure up or accept oneself find their way into the Barbie narrative, and as Dream Houses morph into Mojo Dojo Casa Houses, so too does the film take on a shockingly dark thematic arc while never losing the trademark pink palate. 

The biggest success of the film, however, lies in the all-encompassing production design led by Sarah Greenwood.  Costumer Jacqueline Durran draws deep from the Mattel offerings as vintage Barbie outfits are showcased in a commercial style sequence that still feels charming and delightful. For the unabsorbed audiences, these sequences may make the film’s capitalist undertones most clearly apparent, and there is no denying that to a not-insignificant degree Mattel has platformed this film to boost sales and try to redefine the Barbie image for a new generation that may not feel able to identify with the standards which the doll has set. It is at least a cleverly designed commercial that does not feel as lazy as other product-based films that have come to market. Casting by Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones also helps populate Barbie World with classic Barbies and their respective Kens, as well as the discontinued Midge (Emerald Fennell) who contributes to an amusing running joke across the film.  Gerwig’s direction asks Robbie among others to lean into the plastic nature of their character, a shining example is when Barbie goes down the slide and Robbie holds herself that a specific 90-degree angle that is often seen in toy commercials.  It is all in service of Gerwig’s vision for this well-crafted and decorated world that also adds an air of wonder and playfulness seeing the dream houses, characters, and various vehicles all brought to life.  Even for those who never played with the toys, the total commitment to the spirit of the product line makes it impossible not to be taken up by the whimsy of it all. 

Despite the perceived target audience of the film, Barbie is very much a PG-13 movie which means that it is not watering down its message for the younger generation while also being able to engage with the older generation who may be there either with children of their own or to scratch the nostalgic itch. It does not rely totally on topical humor, but it is a little concerning for a film based on such a timeless toy that its humor may not hold up in the long run. For what it is in the moment, however, Gerwig presents a film that encapsulates her feelings about where we are as a society, and by showing the extremes of both ends of the social spectrum makes a strong case for the need – now, more than ever – to work together. Barbie World needs both Barbie and Ken to thrive in the same way that we as a society need various viewpoints and experiences to come together so that we can collectively grow. Even without the social messaging of the film, it is still an enjoyable and imaginative work that crosses the aisle and becomes – surpassingly given the stigma around the toy – a four-quadrant release and potentially the Box Office winner of 2023 far outperforming even the most generous of estimates.