Barbie (2023) Review

When everything begins to go wrong for Barbie it leads her to question her world and overall existence. Is Barbie Land all it seems to be?

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Constantly having the best day ever, Barbie begins to notice things are starting to change for her which is rather frightening considering she is the stereotypical Barbie! After having a cold shower, burning her waffle and then soured milk it was about to get worse when she took off her shoes and had flat feet. She wasn’t perfect anymore and had to take a visit to see weird Barbie who tells her about the real world and how to get there (something she had done many years before).

The adventure between Barbie Land and the Real World would raise so many questions and issues for not only Barbie but everyone watching the film as well. It was a rather clever method to show that while the idea of having a Barbie for all different professions, that actually still in the Real World it was not equal at all. In Barbie Land it was all ran by women and well Ken was just Ken.

Our main Barbie had to travel to find the child she had belonged to as her feelings were linked to what was happening within her life. I mean damn this was so deep and would get even deeper as the film goes on, I was really happy about this though as I thought after the trailers it was going to have this type of vibe which I can only compare to The Truman Show. Obviously not massively the same as that but in someways it just felt like that messed up world.

Gloria and Sasha would offer a different view on things and this was something that Barbie didn’t think she could cope with. When Ken had snuck in the car for the travel, she had no idea that his experience in the Real World would have the opposite effect. He loved the attention and respect he was given as a man, wanted to learn more and attempted to change Barbie Land forever.

The film breaks down the walls from start to finish and I was taken in by every single second of it. The mixture of the worlds and what Barbie stood for was a rather incredible and quite frankly risky way to approach the film. It works though, it worked in such a way that I found myself crying with laughter at some scenes and then getting a tear in my eye with emotions in the next. I don’t think I was mentally prepared for that though.

The speech about women was quite frankly one of the best I have seen in a long time and was exactly what I needed to hear right now. Everything about that was so amazing that I actually wanted to cheer and applaud (obviously I didn’t because I was in a cinema screen and I am British, we just don’t do that type of thing). Feminism at its finest and I was well and truly there for it all.

The jokes and little comments were absolutely brilliant, well and truly on the edge and ripping into so many Barbie releases and things about the dolls. As well as Ken, but did everyone know there was an Allan as well? It also had me thinking about which Barbie’s I owned as a child.

Helen Mirren was the perfect choice as the narrator and was given some great one liners randomly throughout the film as well, the note to the filmmakers being a particular highlight. Margot Robbie is ultimate casting as Barbie though isn’t she, I mean let’s face it she is utterly gorgeous and so close to perfect. Really made to be in that role and she does it in spectacular fashion. Ryan Gosling went all in and really was not overly bothered about how ridiculous it all got and that has made me love him even more (didn’t think that was possible to be honest). The rest of the casting was great as well with Kate McKinnon given some fantastic scenes, I am sure we have all felt like Weird Barbie? America Ferrera was given that film stealing speech and nailed it!

Seriously though this will not be the film expect at all when they know it’s about Barbie but I feel it is the film that we really needed, for women to be able to relate to it and realise that actually you do matter. Throw in some musical numbers, dancing and downright ridiculous moments and you have the best film I have seen in a very long time.

Side note – this film is not for small children at all.