Currently, if you Google the word Barbie, the page turns pink and sparkles with stars. At the box office, presale demand is such that the movie is expected to match its $100 million budget on its opening weekend. Over the next couple of years, its effect is estimated to add $14 billion to the doll industry. Before the film has even properly hit the screen, Barbie is already queen of the movies.
It’s almost too perfect. Which is apt, as that’s the problem Barbie’s having. In lovely Barbieland, where massively successful Barbies run everything, achieve to the highest level, lift one another up and never get pissed off about anything (because there is nothing at which to be pissed off), every day is wonderful. It’s all dazzling smiles, beautiful weather, cool outfits, cooler cars, living in your Dream House, hanging out at the beach with Ken in the day and having sleepovers at night with your wonderful friends. Nothing goes wrong, ever. It’s perfect. And very pink.
And then Barbie – the Barbie played by Margot Robbie – wakes up one morning and everything’s off. Breakfast isn’t right. She falls out of her house rather than gliding down as if being lifted by an invisible hand. She’s started having dark thoughts about death. Just as worryingly, her feet become, rather than their usual high-heel-perfect tip-toe, flat.
This leads to a trip to see Weird Barbie, a wise, Yoda type who sports the physical and mental peculiarities that come from being played with by an over-enthusiastic and differently creative owner, who explains that whoever’s playing with main Barbie is having A Bad One. So begins a trip to reality to find out what’s going on. With stowaway Ken (the one played by Ryan Gosling – they’re all called Ken, except the dork played by Michael Cera, who’s called Allan) in tow, the pair have very different revelations that will massively reverberate in Barbieland.
It’s an absolute scream. Barbieland is astoundingly realised, down to the tiniest detail. There is Barbie lore and references absolutely everywhere, as well as perfect and hilarious observations that you never thought of before. Margot Robbie – wearing many hats, both figurative and literal – perfectly slides between all of the story’s demands on her character, as well as near-constant delivery of one-liners. There’s an embarrassment of observational gold, and the gags – from the sensational campness of Barbieland, to the more subtle, easily missed zingers – are pitched to perfection.