Review: the Barbie movie started out with a plastic doll, but ends up being so powerfully, strikingly human. It’s fabulously pink, surprisingly thought-provoking, and unexpectedly touching.
Tbh, I wanted to catch the Barbie movie just ‘cos I thought it would be a frivolous watch. A chick flick with pink nostalgia and A-list names? I’d take that after a busy week. Two hours later, I realised I was wrong about the film. It lures you in with a superficial plastic doll, then hits you with a sobering dose of real-world conundrums that leave you reeling…
Checkmate! Reality called
Margot Robbie is Stereotypical Barbie, but she’s becoming decidedly less perfect (hello, flat feet and cellulite!). This leads her to the Real World for answers. This is home to mother-daughter duo, Gloria and Sasha (played by America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt). Without going into details of the movie’s parallel universe logic, it’s due to Gloria’s sketches of darker versions of Barbie that affected the latter.
Sorry to break it to you, but the Barbie movie isn’t so ‘plastic fantastic’ after all. Barbie has a rude awakening in the Real World. She’s met with sexist remarks and even physical harassment on the streets of L.A.. And she soon notices that fair gender representation doesn’t exist in many jobs, not even in the Mattel HQ.
But wait, there’s more upsetting news. Gloria is a creative but troubled soul who’s stuck in a receptionist job, with a husband that doesn’t pull his weight and an adolescent kid that hates her – seemingly, a reflection of the typical woman’s reality (*shudder*).
Un-doing the patriarchy
In his ‘toxic male’ phase, Ryan Gosling’s Ken started brainwashing (or ‘programming’) all the inhabitants of Barbieland. This turned it into every patriarchal man’s dream. Think: all the Barbies (including the President) turning into the definition of subservient, dumb blondes with no opinions of their own. This depiction took things to the comical extreme. It’s hilarious and icky all at once.
After events that I won’t spoil, Gloria’s heartfelt reflection of her experience as a woman broke the spell of the patriarchy:
You have to be thin, but not too thin… You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean… You’re supposed to be pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much…You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never fail… I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us.
Food for thought: was this movie director Greta Gerwig’s way of ‘deprogramming’ our brains?
Men need love too
The Barbie movie doesn’t just want you to feel empathy for women, it also encourages compassion for men. Ken’s character development sheds light on the pressure of societal expectations on them. His eventual breakdown revealed the core of his desires: simply to be seen, heard and loved. Was it manly to talk down to women and to assume all doctors were male? The Real World made it seem so. He didn’t agree with these patriarchal ideas, but he emulated them anyway because that’s what it took to be a ‘man’, or so he thought.
Feminism isn’t ‘anti-men’
Barbie’s quest to restore her and Barbieland’s perfection led to her discovering the shocking reality of the Real World. Ironically, her journey reveals that the supposed perfection of Barbieland isn’t what it seems. A series of chaotic events showed that neither all-Barbie nor all-Ken rule was superior. Barbieland saw both, and the inequality – whichever way it skewed – led to negative outcomes. Newsflash: the all-female rule was just as discriminatory as the opposite. A ‘perfect’ world, then, is created by mutual understanding and taking steps towards fairer power distribution.
Is the movie too ‘woke’?
Barbie and Sasha started off on the wrong foot, with the teen angrily accusing the once-optimistic Barbie of ruining female empowerment. I’ll be honest, this dialogue didn’t land perfectly for me. Some people criticise the movie for trying too hard to be ‘woke’, and in this moment, I could kinda see where they’re coming from.
The outburst felt like an overkill (Barbie, a fascist?!). And this might just be limited to the social circles I’m in, but I don’t know anyone whose self-esteem was actually impacted by a mere doll. That said, I won’t dismiss an issue just because I can’t relate to it. Sasha’s rage may be a reflection of Barbie-related issues faced in circles beyond my own.
To be human is beautiful
Barbie gradually realises that human ‘imperfections’ tell the story of a person’s life. She’s so touched by the beauty of life that she decides to be human, even though she knows it means an imminent death.
The Barbie movie acknowledges that life is tough for everyone, men and women alike. But the light at the end of the tunnel (or the movie) is this: the ups and downs of life make it worth living. Do we really want to chase perfection when even the perfect Stereotypical Barbie wants to leave it behind? Perfection is boring; to be human is beautiful… even if it means contending with difficult emotions and (*gasp*), cellulite.
There isn’t just one way to interpret the film, though. And that might be its entire point. As the character of Ruth Handler said, she didn’t create Barbie with a conclusion in mind – it was up to Barbie to reach her own.
Barbie, a ‘brainless’ watch?
I initially thought so, but was soon proven wrong. The Barbie movie goes beyond the cliche plot of ‘finding yourself’ (though, self-discovery plays a part). At once relatable and sobering, there are so many epiphanies and parallels that can be drawn to today’s world. It isn’t just a frivolous flick that’ll help clear your mind after Oppenheimer. In some ways, it might just spark more questions about society and life.