Film Review: Barbie

Warning: This review contains spoilers!

If people have been following my stories and posts on Instagram lately, then you will know how excited I have been for the new Barbie movie. As a young girl, I enjoyed playing with Barbie, and for me this was a film I was looking forward to as a trip down memory lane, a time of nostalgia and just as a bit of girly fun. From the trailer I had seen, I had high hopes for this movie to be funny, enjoyable and just a piece of light-hearted entertainment. But behind all the pink and plastic, I was disappointed to discover that it was just a dress-up for a woke political satire.

Don't get me wrong, there were elements I enjoyed. There were some fantastic one-liners, Ryan Gosling as Ken was hilarious at times with his moves to try and impress Barbie, and some excellent choreography, which I particularly enjoyed during the dance sequence to 'Dance the Night Away'. The set of Barbie Land was brilliant (and-oh-so-pink!), and the costumes were lavish.

I particularly enjoyed at the beginning of the film, where Barbie wakes up in her dream house to the soundtrack of 'Pink' and was amused by the humour of how everything was like how things are when playing with toys: no water rushes from the shower head, no liquid comes out of her cup when Barbie drinks her milk, and her feet are always on tip-toes when in and out of her shoes, just how real Barbie dolls look!

But the trailer did not prepare me for this story of feminism on steroids. I left the cinema feeling that to write the script for this movie you must be a real man-hater.

All of the men throughout the movie, whether they were the Kens in Barbie Land or the men of the real world, were all made out to be stupid, thick and a waste of space. Ridiculed from start to finish, I couldn't help but feel that this is a very poor way to truly empower women by making all men look that bad. Even the poor husband of Gloria (the Mattel employee whose thoughts, feelings and drawings of Barbie start to negatively influence Barbie's perfect life in Barbie Land), is mocked for trying to learn to speak his wife's language.

In a world that screams for equality, why couldn't we have a movie that portrays in a positive light how men and women can live and work together with a mutual respect? Why do we have to have a matriarchy or a patriarchy, where one or the other sex is subjugated whilst the other reigns dominant over the other? I'm not even asking for a movie that gave Barbie and Ken a romantic ending, and I'm all for women being encouraged to be strong, own their own homes and have equal opportunities in their careers. But why do men have to be brought down to bring that message across? I understand what Greta Gerwig was trying to achieve, in trying to raise awareness that in many cases, women are still not treated fairly or with respect, but painting men is such a bad light throughout the movie is only encouraging a spirit of misandry (had it been the other way around I am sure the movie would have been strongly criticised and branded sexist, bigoted and misogynistic).

Although many will find the very opening scene of the Barbie movie amusing and funny, the act of young girls smashing their baby dolls now that Barbie is on the scene, in a clear act of denouncing motherhood and making it look insignificant, I actually found very disturbing.

In places, the movie didn't flow smoothly and was rather 'bitty', which felt it truly didn't gel. And there were times it was outrageously crazy which sometimes gave it the cringe-factor.

However, Margot Robbie's portrayal of Barbie was impeccable, and some of the most beautiful scenes of this movie were those tender moments she shared with some of the characters, such as the elderly woman on the bench and with Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie. We also had some excellent humour from her as well, particularly on her initial return to Barbie Land after her brief adventure in the real world, when she experiences almost a depressive-like state after discovering the Kens have taken over, and collapses on the floor in a robotic, doll-like manner which is hilarious to watch.

The only truly positive message I could find in this film, is how Barbie discovers that she doesn't just have to be a 'stereotypical Barbie', and begins to discover her true self and realises that she wants to make something of her life and make her mark on the real world. She develops a warm and caring spirit, that even results in her apologising to Ken in how she made him feel before with her selfish attitudes.

All-in-all, despite all the hype, I was actually very disappointed with this movie. No doubt, it will exceed expectations of box-office success, and I am sure countless girls and women will love it, dubbing it as a feel-good film that empowers women, especially the hard-core feminists out there, and I'm certain many will disagree with me! I was truly so excited and hyped for the Barbie movie, but sadly it just didn't meet expectations, and I can only label this as a bigoted film with a misandristic agenda dressed up as Barbie.