First Take: Barbie - the lighter film of that so-called ‘Barbenheimer’ movement

SYNOPSIS: Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.

It’s the film that spawned millions of memes since that first teaser trailer broke the internet in December. But as one filmmaker tackles the atomic bomb, Greta Gerwig went the other way to cater for the family market - as Warner have cleverly scheduled this film to open against their former golden goose’s new release. And what a genius move it was - because after the heaviness of Oppenheimer, this was the perfect way to lighten the mood, even if it’s not quite, fully, the exact kind of film that the trailers showcased.

Greta makes this one pretty pacy, coming in at 1 hour 54 minutes, and having co-written it with Noah Baumbach, this film has a lot - humour, charm, some very well thought out ideas mostly, but sadly, the marketing has done this film a bit of disservice - we all thought it would be light hearted, all-out fun for all the family, but in typical Gerwig fashion, the ideas of patriarchy and feminism are explored, and because of this, if you want to bring younger children (under 10), don’t. This is the perfect use of the 12 certificate in all honesty, because of what this film’s plot explores. It is shot incredibly well by Rodrigo Prieto (yes, Scorsese’s current DOP), and the score spearheaded by Andrew Wyatt and none other than Mark Ronson fits this film perfectly - even though it is heavy on the needle drops, which, let’s be real, we knew it would be, new tracks from Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish being the two main songs which will more than likely go for Oscar contention.

On the cast front, leading this one as the stereotypical Barbie and Ken is Margot Robbie, and the incredibly inspired choice of Ryan Gosling - without these two this film would not work as well as it does: Gosling once again proves there’s more to him than the romcom, and Robbie, even with her role as a producer, is developing a great understanding of what makes box office successes. Supporting them on the Barbie front we have Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan and Kate McKinnon, and on the Ken front - Simu Liu, the new Doctor himself Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans and a few unexpected cameos too. Add in the ‘real world’ characters played by Will Ferrell, America Ferrara, Ariana Greenblatt and Helen Mirren narrating it all, and you have a cast, and a film, which has a lot of fun and passes the 6 laugh test quite admirably.

THE VERDICT

Now I would’ve loved to have given this film a full 5 star review, and I was very close to doing so, but having discussed some key elements of the plot, ones which would spoil a few things, with our production team - there are moments in this film which will fly over its target market. But away from that, this is basically what we knew it would be, a big old film that just gets it right. This is a film for the older kids, and it isn’t afraid to show it.

RATING: 4.5/5