When Barbie (Margot Robbie) gets the chance to live among humans, she soon realizes that the perfect world of Barbie Land is not all that it seems.
I avoided spoilers for this movie for a really long time because I wanted to see it with the least amount of review centred bias possible. I was also initially a little wary of a live action Barbie movie in case it tread the same well worn path as its animated predecessors.
I needn’t have worried, because this film astounded me both with its plot and with how it was so genuinely funny. Of course the plot isn’t particularly novel in regards to plots about characters taking up space in worlds unfamiliar to them, but this film impressed me nonetheless. It even made me chuckle that Helen Mirren was the narrator, although sadly there was no cogent connection made between the narrator and the story.
I think all the cast did a spectacular job in their roles and there’s numerable gems here, and Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) as Ken was genuinely hilarious. I felt like the story was a refreshing take on the traditional romance narrative, but I think the themes of childhood, nostalgia and girlhood were tackled with sensitivity to the point that I might actually call this film emotional, which is something I definitely didn’t expect when I first sat down to watch this film at long last.
This film really subverted my expectations over and over, and was such a delightful experience while also feeling like the visual equivalent of giving your younger self a hug. While I’m not yet sure if this is the sort of film I’d rewatch daily, it was still a lovely viewing experience and I highly recommend you watch it if you haven’t already.
MY RATING: ***** / *****
Movie and Television Blog (2013- 