Film: Barbie

 

GENRE: Comedy Fantasy
RATING: PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 54 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Margot Robbie (The Suicide Squad, Wolf of Wall Street)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land, Nice Guys); America Ferrara (Superstore)
DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women)
WRITERS: Noah Baumbach (Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story);
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Frances Ha, Little Women)
PLOT: Barbie questions her existence and finds herself in the real world.    

FULL DISCLOSURE: Went more for Robbie and the hype.

STORY STUFF: The trailer gives you most of the first half of the story. The second half that includes a Ken take-over is pretty funny. The existential crisis goes on too long though. The ending heart-to-heart in a blank void got me rolling me eyes and checking my watch. There are plenty of fun moments in the film but the storyline is not captivating.

ACTING STUFF: Robbie plays Barbie perfectly. She brings the look, the emotion, the comedy and more. Gosling is fantastic as Ken. His insecurity and forced bravado is hysterical at times. Ferrara is well cast and makes an amazing speech. I got tired of Kate McKinnon (SNL) pretty quickly and Will Ferrell (Elf) is over-the-top and really not needed to add silliness to the proceedings. Michael Cera (Superbad) is a breath of fresh air as the only non-Ken in Barbieland. Most of the Barbies and Kens also give fun performances in supporting roles.

ARTISTIC STUFF: I love the plastic-ness of the set, especially the waves. As with the dolls, the costumes are important and add significantly to the film. I was expecting some better music for some reason. There is a late nineties song that is used beautifully though. I won’t spoil it but it made me laugh a bunch.

VERDICT: Three stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like Barbie or want to see pretty plastic people.
UPCOMING REVIEW:  A Haunting in Venice?