Barbie Review

The first hour is close to perfect, a musical comedy staged in a plastic world with no water, no stairs and no death, shot on real sets by Rodrigo Prieto so the artifice carries weight and shadow. Gerwig's structure is a fish out of water comedy running in both directions, and the funniest material comes from Ken discovering a system built for him and importing it home, which Ryan Gosling plays with an absolute commitment that carries the middle of the film.

Margot Robbie has the harder job, since Barbie's arc runs toward interiority and she has to build it out of small collapses. The production design and the Kubrick opening are jokes made with real craft. Then America Ferrera delivers a monologue that states the film's thesis in plain sentences, and everything afterwards is the movie explaining itself, including a boardroom subplot that lets the actual manufacturer be the joke and the good guy at once. The ending regains something real. It is smarter than it needed to be and less brave than it believes.