I have to say this is not the type of movie I would normally watch but my wife sat me down during the weekend to give it a try, she already watch it and love it, she actually wanted to rewatch and she knew I haven't so we share the almost two hours of Baribe (2023). I was kinda skeptical about a movie based on a doll and how girly it could be but director Greta Gerwig managed to create something that end up in a movie been entertaining, funny and surprisingly thoughtful. The movie takes the wold famous Barbie doll and transforms her into a character almost human like, who at a certain point goes offroad and deal with some heavy existential questions, go figure a doll that have doubts about live. During the entire movie she look bright, colorful and really make the impression of been just Barbie, something they manage to pull without been heavy of CGI and let Margot Robbie do her charming magic of been just her and smile. Some of the reasons I enjoy the movie is the mix of comedy, social commentary (not so much but still) and emotions in a way I didn't think possible for a girly toy movie that could have easily been just a two hour movie about a human trying to bring to life a toy. The movie had big success at the box office during the summer of 2023 going head to head with other movies like Oppenheimer (in fact I didnt like that one) and after watching Barbie I can see why it was successful, it has the basics of a movie for everyone, there is music, comedy, drama, nostalgia.
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The story develops in Barbieland that is basically the everywhere pink utopia where Barbies rule everything and have all the important jobs just as when you go to the toy store and see a hallway full of all kind of Barbies from President to Supreme Court Justices to Nobel Prize winners, etc. Not hard to figure or think about it, the main character is Barbie played by Margot Robbie, who lives the perfect Barbie life in her dream house, waking up each morning to a great day without troubles or stress, not like normal humans. There is her companion Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, probably only exist to be Barbie's beach buddy and potential boyfriend, something that even on this movie is a mystery, are they really a couple?. Ken seem to be constantly competing for her attention with other Kens, something that got my attention so not just one Ken??. The movie really kicks in when Barbie had some kind of epiphany for a doll to think about death or whats next after and ask others "Do you guys ever think about dying?" during a dance party, making everyone to flip out including herself, it was the aja moment of the movie and didn't sound or look ridiculous
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This kind of discovery or mind set mess up her perfect Barbie life and it all begins falling apart, there were some details like her shower turn cold, her feet become flat instead of permanently arched for heels and she discovers she had cellulite too, yep here comes the stress. Been a doll who have never experience this kind of situation she visits Weird Barbie, role played by Kate McKinnon, she is a kinda or oracle and tells her she must travel to the Real World to find the human girl who's playing with her and fix the connection between them, for me this is the base of the story or how things start to become interesting rather than been the classic perfect Barbie world and gave me some Tron vibes as when a character needs to escape to reality for some reason. Barbie and Ken going out of her world turn things upside down almost like when on movies characters try to fix things that happens in the past and mess up time to the point it cant be fix, similar happen to her world when they come back and now Ken is trying to over throne her, still in a friendly way.
This is a good watch, not a great movie but a good one so I don't want to tell the entire story, rather just give you a glimpse of the contrast between the classic perfect world and how human reality goes head butting against each other. I enjoyed the movie combination of color some of them been very electric between yellows, green and intense pink, the environment from backdrops to stage and the music never felt like overwhelmy girly but it did get close a few times, they did play a couple of songs that are not my daily driver but it was not bad as I would expect a constant musical coming out from a movie that was suppose to be as girly as it can be.
SourceDirector Gerwig and her production team created a Barbieland that feels like it was built from actual Barbie play sets with that fake looking backdrops in purpose and everything felt so plasticly as it should that perfectly brings up the essence and style of the toys they were representing with humans, if you ever play with Barbies as a little girl or had a sister with tons of Barbies, my sister was one of them with so many she couldn't play with all at the same time; then you know what I mean. The combination of their clothe just feels very Barbie and Ken like, with countless iconic Barbie outfits that felt very detailed, I particularly liked how they handled the transition between Barbieland and the real world, it never felt over the top like some other movies specially animated ones or live action. The soundtrack goes along with the movie very well with songs that lift up specific moments rather than just serving as background filler, it is the case Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?" is very effective playing subtly throughout before getting its big emotional moment near the end, in comparison similar to Toy Story "You Got A Friend in Me", I'm probably making too many comparisons but its not every day that we get a movie about a toy where the main character is the female toy.
The movie does felt a bit draggy in the middle, it probably suffers after the hole Barbie mystery is over and transitions on the more human aspects and problems, particularly when it focuses on the Mattel executives trying to capture Barbie. These scenes feel less inspired than the rest of the movie, again the Barbie magic world mystic kinda faint a bit and while I get that they are trying to build up this satire out of the corp culture, they just are not as engaging as watching Barbie and Ken go through their identity crises. The movie is at its best when it's either embracing the absurd Barbie world or digging into the surprisingly deep questions about identity and purpose, specially coming out from a doll, there are times during a movie that makes me question and think about what is actually to be human rather than living the perfect world without pain that everyone so desperate wants.
