“Barbie”: alluring packaging masks a lackluster story inside

3 out of 5 stars

After months of “Barbie”-themed clothing, TV specials, product collaborations, and cafe pop-ups, Greta Gerwig’s latest directorial endeavor, “Barbie,” has arrived in theaters. 

Like many others, I got dressed in “Barbie” pink, all of us excited to finally see this hyped feature. Unfortunately, that exciting feeling quickly waned, and I left the theater utterly disappointed.

The start of this movie really held my hopes high, and I was gearing up for what I thought might be one of my new favorite films. 

There were hilarious satirical moments that had me laughing out loud, the aesthetic was super fun, and I felt truly transported to this fictional “Barbie” world. 

Additionally, the acting was good based on the script. I also loved how they mimicked “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the opening, but made it 100 times better.

However, the biggest flaw with “Barbie” is that it tries to tackle too much in the allotted time. 

About a third of the way through the film, you meet a tween girl named Sasha, who brings up a lot of valid points about “Barbie,” and it completely shifts the tone of the film. 

Sasha mentions the role the doll plays in contributing to unrealistic beauty standards for women and a capitalistic environment. 

From that moment on, the whole lens of the film shifted for me, and I slowly sunk deeper and deeper into an existential crisis in regard to the movie — and not in the way they wanted us to.

I started to feel very weird about the film as a whole as they continued to bring up these heavy topics about how unjust and misogynistic the world can be due to capitalistic patriarchal societies, yet the film would gloss over this quickly. 

The only comment they seemed to want to make was simply acknowledging and reminding the audience of these problems. 

The lack of addressing these themes, especially the ones seeming to poke at capitalistic environments, made me overly aware that Mattel Inc. was behind this movie, and they clearly still have “Barbies” they need to sell.

Another part of this film that didn’t work for me was giving Ken a “what about me” storyline. 

Aside from his solo, which I have to admit was catchy, this plotline made Ken into a “nice guys finish last” character and just detracted from Barbie’s storyline as well as the feminist tone they seemed to be aiming for. 

Had those Ken moments been focused on just Barbie’s plotline, there might have been more character development, and the themes may have felt less rushed. 

I also disliked the Mattel Inc. executive board made up of all men, with Will Ferrell acting as Mattel Inc.’s CEO. 

The scenes that focused on them seemed out of place and appear to be a call out to all-male executive rooms. 

However, at the same time, you could tell Mattel Inc. did not want to be portrayed in a negative light, so they gave Will Ferrell a line saying he wanted to save Barbie and restore her power in the Barbie world, making him the good guy. 

On top of this, the fact that the board is made up of all men isn’t ever resolved, and with the way this movie ends, it appears that Mattel Inc. is still run without a single woman in charge. 

After sitting through this movie, I couldn’t help but be disappointed about the potential the film could’ve had. 

I played with “Barbie” for a large portion of my childhood and loved every second of it. “Barbie” let me create stories, dive into my imagination, and helped me cultivate my love for filmmaking, with many of my early productions starring “Barbies.”

Other than the occasional nods to past “Barbie” products, this didn’t have the nostalgic punch I was expecting. I felt like “Barbie” was destined to be more of a coming-of-age story, similar to the works we’ve seen from Gerwig in the past.

Instead, what “Barbie” gives us is a mix of themes and messages that left me feeling sad, confused, and overwhelmed when it was over. For a good portion of the movie, I was just sitting there trying to take in a heavy moment, but the movie had already cut to another one-liner. 

Many people are praising this movie for its feminist theme. However, I felt like it lost itself about two-thirds through the runtime and quickly just became an attempt to dive into feminist issues simply by stating what those issues are without adding anything to the conversation. 

At the end of the day, “Barbie” felt more like a long commercial, rather than a heartfelt nostalgia piece that it had the potential to be.