Every day in Barbie Land is perfect. That is until “stereotypical” Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts to think about death and question her whole existence. 

Seeking out the advice of “weird” Barbie (Kate McKinnon) she learns there is a link between a Barbie and its owner and to find out why this is happening she should go to the real world. 

Ken (Ryan Gosling) is feeling equally insecure in the world as he struggles to understand what his role is in it. Of course he knows his job is “beach” but without Barbie he is nothing. So he hides in her car and hitches along with her. 

In the real world Barbie finds teenager Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her mother Gloria (America Ferrara) whilst Ken learns about patriarchy and the fact that in the real world men are in charge. 

This is not your normal toy tie in for a movie! With a screenplay by indie film making couple Greta Gerwig (who also directs) and Noah Baumbach this Barbie has its focus on the balance of power between the sexes and the pressure that gender stereotypes place on people. But the delivery is in a wacky brightly coloured comedy. 

There are some wonderful moments and bizarrely for a Barbie movie I thought they all revolved around Gosling’s Ken. Perhaps this is my gender bias coming into play? Ryan Gosling’s comedy chops are at absolute peak form here and he is hilarious. He skewers male fragility and how it leads to toxic behaviour and absolutely nails the song and dance numbers he is given. Whilst his rivalry with fellow Ken (Simu Liu) is great. Generally the thread of bizarre “meta” comedy that runs through the film is peculiarly funny. 

On the negative side I felt the entire plot line with Will Ferrell as a Mattel executive was awful and I suspect just there to provide some slapstick fun for the younger audience. Whilst there are clumsy and clunky feeling moments as they try to mesh the real world to Barbie world. Which is best resolved by reverting to silliness. 

It is a hugely fun and comedic way of highlighting the unfair expectations of both women and men on each other and the balance of power in society. And whilst it did not all completely land with me I had a lot of fun. 

So this is where I have to add a huge caveat to my initial impressions. Watching Barbie at the cinema is the single worst experience I have had at the multiplex in my entire lifetime. Having gone to the cinema well over 2,000 times this century alone that is quite some statement. My screening on opening day tied in with the final day of term and half of the cinema being teenage boys and girls dressed in a combination of suits and dresses with as much pink as they could imagine. So far, so fun. Unfortunately they proceeded to clap, cheer and scream at every appearance of Barbie and Ken on screen (this as you can imagine is many times). Whilst many of the teenage boys shouted derogatory comments at Margot Robbie. Any line or scene that had appeared in a trailer for the film was shouted back at the screen and the groups of teens were in constant motion rotating seats and throwing items at each other. The result was incredibly distracting, impossible to police (ushers came in on a few occasions after I’d seen other viewers exit the screen presumably to complain which prompted behaviour for the entire few minutes the usher stayed) and resulted in me unable to hear many sections of the film. 

I do hope to watch this again and perhaps then I will add an addendum here. 

Update

As mentioned above I was able to see Barbie in the cinema again and I wanted to update my thoughts and I have to say this film is even better than I first thought in the difficult screening I saw on opening day.

The one thing that has been reinforced for me is just how great Ryan Gosling and his Ken is in this film. The male psychology aspects and the way they are portrayed is fantastic. The humour and little subtle touches that are peppered throughout the performance are immense. Just keep your eyes on his face to see when he is feeling rejected or happy because he has or does not have Barbie’s attention. And those song and dance numbers are just completely joyful.

I was also able to appreciate Margot Robbie’s Barbie more and the growth she goes through and engage much more in America Ferrara’s speech about the expectations of a woman.

On the whole it is such a wonderfully crafted movie that has really serious messages on the balance of power between the sexes, male psychology and gender expectations. But it does so in an hilarious and stunning looking package.