Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in 'Barbie'

We can thank director and co-writer Greta Gerwig, and her screenplay collaborator husband Noah Baumbach, for taking the toy-perfect Barbie World of Mattel, and turning this film treatment into a relevant, ‘woke’ kind of world - where imperfection affords opportunity, and contemporary issues are given a fair hearing. It may not be what most audiences may have expected, but I’m thankful that the two did not take the absolutely safe, fan service approach, that would have guaranteed easy passage to an eager, primarily juvenile, audience. While it can be said it’s still more Little Women than Lady Bird in terms of her directing style, there’s enough playfulness and quirkiness to make it unmistakably Gerwig. And for this I’ll salute the team of Gerwig and Baumbach. It may start off in typical cartoon fashion, and making ‘cute’ the world-building of this Barbie World, and contrasting it to the real world. But from the outset, there are little hints made of what’s to come, and forewarning us of how both worlds do influence and impact on each other. This is best realized in cinematic fashion when Barbie (Margot Robbie) first goes out of character, and asks if anyone in Barbie World ever thinks of dying. This is the very first Live Action Barbie film, and it’s nice to see it take on themes of mortality, purpose in Life, the patriarchy, and the role of women in society and throughout the history of the world. Yes, Gerwig and Baumbach fit all those in, while keeping us brightly entertained in Barbie World. In hilarious fashion, the prologue riffs on 2001: A Space Odyssey but with Helen Mirren narrating about the evolution of dolls, and how the Advent of Barbie revolutionized the doll world. Along with Barbie and the different versions of Barbie (multiverse, anyone?), we’re then introduced to superfluous Ken (Ryan Gosling), and his band of other Ken’s - which includes Simu Liu. Stand-outs in the support cast would be America Ferrara as Gloria, a Mattel employee, who actually delivers the keynote speech about the existential crisis of being a woman, and Will Farrell as the Mattel CEO. Look out for Kate McKinnon as weird Barbie, Dua Lipa as a Mermaid Barbie, and Issa Rae as President Barbie. And there’s a silly cameo by John Cena as Kenmaid.
Thematically, the serious side of the film would be the journey of self-discovery that Barbie undergoes, upon her expulsion from utopian Barbie Land. Gerwig has said that rather than turning this into a simple toy comes to life film, she wanted the story to reflect the societal pressures placed on American adolescent girls, and coming up with a screenplay with elements of Anarchy, and Humanism. She and Baumbach have actually succeeded in doing that. So it’s a film that can be enjoyed from a purely visual level by younger children, and the more mature members of the audience will appreciate how issues and more serious subject matter are also tackled in the course of the film’s narrative. What I find pathetic is the grandstanding made by local politicians over a cartoon world map that’s seen for a few seconds in a fantasy/comedy film. To even suggest banning the film over this map, when they probably haven’t even watched the film, is such an over-reaction.