STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Barbie (Margot Robbie) is one of the many Barbies living in Barbieland, living a happy, carefree life partying and living it up with her friends, in spite of everyone holding down top positions in demanding roles. Suddenly, she suffers an existential crisis, wondering about death, caused by her owner, fifteen year old Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt.) In order to sort it out, she must travel to the real world and connect with her owner, only for Ken (Ryan Gosling) to hitch a ride along with her. On arrival, Barbie is rejected by her owner, and discovers a world where men rule, which Ken is enamoured by. Upon their return to Barbieland, he uses this model to take over, thrusting Barbie into a desperate battle to regain control, and discover the true nature of things in the process.

When it was first released back in the summer, there was a furore around the Barbie movie, as it was released at the same time as the Oppenheimer film, and there was a big uproar about which film was going to win at the box office, with some medical experts even concerned the crowds soaring to see both films would make the Covid numbers go up again. Thankfully, that didn't appear to have been the case, but while both films have been phenomenally successful, Barbie has gone on to be the most successful film of the year, and now I've finally got round to seeing it. And, given it was inevitable that I eventually would, I can say I'm quite glad I did.

It was easy enough from the very beginning to dismiss, just from the premise (a film about Barbie dolls, now?) and the central premise does feel a bit flimsy to begin with, but it does gradually develop into something more substantial and affecting, with a moving and engaging story about self discovery. Another bugbear to quash is the film's apparent 'hatred of men.' While the themes do revolve around the patriarchy and toxic masculinity, it does also address the issues of emasculation and gender norms expected of men to live up to, and its all done in such a jovial, non preachy way that it's very unlikely to really rub anyone up the wrong way.

From a premise so fluffy comes something so much more multilayered, a far fetched conception that addresses much deeper issues, with a touching undercurrent and a generally fun, funky nature, with a more than decent soundtrack (not including the much despised 90's Aqua tune.) ****