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As the author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, Natasha Walter, recently put it, “In a world where women are told they can be anything, many times they still have to be dolls, too.” Perfect and elegant at all times, be what is required of them.
In Barbie, presented to us by Mattel, creator of the doll of the same name, the opposite also strives to be true: now that Barbie can be everything, she must also be a woman. But should we be looking for women in dolls or dolls in our women? Feminism is certainly past this point already.
Yet this film, directed by the talented Greta Gerwig, and co-written with her partner Noah Baumbach, seeks to reinvent Barbie for an era when asking questions is more important than patience for answers, and where the choices are always either: dagger or Birkenstock, Ken or can be, patriarchy or war between the sexes.
However, the film is about “Barbie stereotypes” – skinny, tall, beautiful – finding themselves. Not the pregnant (and neglected) Barbie, not the weird Barbie dressed as a clown, not the President or Dr. Barbie, or the ones in space. In an attempt to turn the gaze inward to the doll phenomenon and its many reinventions to remain relevant, Gerwig sticks to Barbie that will come down palatably.
The high point of the film is when Ruby Barbie ventures into the “real world”, of Barbie Land, upon discovering to her horror that she is developing cellulite on her thighs and that her feet are becoming flat, no longer arched like the heels she wears. She’s been having thoughts of death recently—actually the equivalent of cellulite in one scene—and everything has been “down” ever since.
Now she must go into the real world, and find out what’s bothering her doll copy owner, who through “continuous space” blah-blah is destroying her in the real world. Gosling’s Ken jumps in for the ride, and Barbie realizes almost immediately that, contrary to what she’s been told in Barbie Land, making dolls in the image of the powerful people who run the world doesn’t mean Barbie has changed the real world.
It’s the guys who run things here, unlike the hapless people in Barbie Land who are forever waiting for Barbie’s approval. Ken Gosling, whom Ruby Barbie treats similarly as an accessory in Barbie Land, can’t get enough of what he finds in the real world. Meanwhile, Barbie is shocked at every turn by what she finds.
Almost quickly though, when the movie steps its paces on how Barbie and Ken fit in, in the real world, we’re transported back to Barbieland. Comes the real-life mother-daughter pair who owns Barbie Ruby. What follows is what happens when the two intersect.
You can’t get away with feeling Mattel’s overarching influence on the film, in raising questions about Barbie and what it does or doesn’t mean to real women, but you do have to make sure the most annoying ones land as weak jokes or are kept in the background.
Gerwig is an inspired choice because of the reputation she’s earned through films like Lady Bird and Little Women, and her touch is found in the little jabs at the wars between the sexes, in the meta-consciousness of Barbie being – at her core – an object of beauty to be admired. Undoubtedly loved by many. Helen Mirren, as the narrator, comments on one point in the film that choosing Ruby as the primary goal for Barbie to actually never be ugly is too flattering for her own good.
While you might enjoy Robbie’s ambition as a producer and Gerwig’s as a director to tie-in with a project that could have gone either way – and it pretty much goes right – the irony is that the real-life Robbie is the hero that Barbie can be. Actually I went for.
Dazzling Ruby is never pretty. She is also not only beautiful. They dazzle your eyes, but they also warm your hearts. She could be anything, and you can look beyond blonde hair, boobs and a body to go along with this.
Gosling plays a much smaller role, though Kane’s dilemma of excess plays a more gratifying role. But then again, like Robbie, Gosling is an actor with an underlying charisma, who can step into a room and own it, or let his woman do her thing.
Gerwig is smart in casting these two charismatic actors to play the lead. If only Barbie and Ken matched, plastic or adorable.
Barbie movie cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Simo Liu, Dua Lipa
Barbie movie director: Greta Gerwig
Barbie movie rating: 2.5 stars
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