Making a light, entertaining comedy apparently wasn't enough for Gerwig and Baumbach. For some reason -- maybe to maintain their intellectual bona fides -- they couldn't resist weighing the movie down, after its light-hearted beginning, with increasingly serious Messages -- a whole heap of Messages, in fact, about Patriarchy and Feminine Self-Realization and What It Means to Be Human, blah blah blah, to the point where I tuned out all the sermonizing, all the earnest Life Lessons, and was simply grateful for the occasional chuckle.

In support of one of its Messages, the filmmakers pretend that the toymaker's managing board is 100 percent male. (It's actually half female.)

The high point of the movie comes in the opening minutes. I fell in love with that spot-on "2001" parody, even though it feels like an inspired afterthought. (So does Helen Mirren's brief narration.)

The entire first third is amusing. After that, it's all downhill. "Barbie" becomes increasingly sour and eventually downright tedious. It's at least half an hour too long.

I confess to being somewhat baffled by its success, both with critics and the public.