Published19. July 2023, 06:52
Review: “Barbie”, the film that everyone wants to love
A few gags, a hint of parody, a bit of wickedness but above all a speech that makes Mattel pass for the benefactor of humanity. The film will be released this Wednesday in French-speaking cinemas.
par
Jean-Charles Canet
1 / 3
Margot Robbie as Barbie, here in a sequence that parodies “2001, a Space Odyssey”
Warner Bros. Pictures
A softly choreographed sequence of “Barbie”. The strength of the film is not its staging.
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Kens in action. Center Ryan Gossling.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Before discovering “Barbie”, starting today in French-speaking cinemas, we had prepared for various scenarios. The first being that the film, inspired by the well-known Mattel dolls, could be an abyssal turnip. Totally first-rate entertainment lazily designed to reinforce stereotypes and glorify the brand. The second being that the feature film was going to dress Barbie for the winter by being caustic, mean or even ruthless. Unrealistic knowing that Warner Bros. and Mattel are working hand in hand to produce entertainment that cannot harm their respective well-understood interests. The last hypothesis is that the film tries to spare the goat and the cabbage by wanting to seduce those who love Barbie, those who hate her and those who don’t give a shit. And that’s exactly what we felt.
A universe and its clichés
“Barbie” the trailer.
Warner Bros. Pictures
After a fun introduction, which parodies the sequence of monkeys from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, it all begins in “Barbie Land”, the imaginary land in which Margot Robbie is the bustiest of all the Barbies. Everything is rosy, everyone is pretty nice and waves their hands to each other. Barbie pretends to shower, drink and eat, hit the beach, meet Ken (Ryan Gossling) and his clones, and end her perfect day with a girls’ sleepover. Here the verbal and visual gags are linked. We immediately feel that it will be a question of gently making fun of the universe and its clichés but by insisting heavily on the only aspect that matters: the world of Barbie is, basically and since the dawn of time, intensely feminist. One day, an accident makes Barbie decide to go to the real world. Ken decides to accompany her, but frustrated by the beauty’s lack of feelings for him, he will be tempted to restore a patriarchal society to the country.
At the end of almost two hours of beautifully photographed sequences, we concede having had moderate fun thanks to a good word, a parodic allusion or a visual gag. But we were above all irritated by an insistent pseudo-progressive chatter which seems convinced that a bit of easy humor solves all paradoxes. Entangled in a staging which is characterized above all by its softness, the director (also an actress) Greta Gerwig even goes so far as to drown out a few sequences with long distressing monologues which make her “Barbie” skid towards the pontificating demonstration.
Girls and boys, be nice
In summary, “Barbie” serves up a bland soup, tries to rally the laughing people (the film sometimes succeeds if one refers to the sometimes thunderous bursts heard in the room). For our part, we saw there only a clumsy speech on the necessary kindness between girls and boys. On the distribution side, if Margot Robbie demonstrates the usefulness of having already been able to rub shoulders with the exercise of self-mockery (by embodying Harley Queen, the Joker’s girlfriend), Ryan Gossling plays a Ken whose gags seem to have been thought around his pecs. The first time is quite funny.
2023-07-19 04:55:11
#Barbie #film #love
