 Milton's Rating Rotten Tomatoes: 88%/83% (critics/audience) PG-13 July 21, 2023 1:54 hr:min ____________________________________________________________________________________________ This coming Sunday will be the 96th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles and I can't let the movie season pass by without sharing a review of this remarkable film. It's rare that I would even like a picture like this and even rarer that I would give any movie five stars but I really loved Barbie for so many reasons. First, the element of surprise. Normally, I would not like a picture with a lot of silly song and dance routines, flashy colorful staging and slapstick style comedy but Barbie was actually much more profound and thoughtful than what appears on the surface. It's actually a provocative commentary on what it means to be human and the messiness of life. In the film, Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) lives in an ideal picture perfect Barbie land but wakes up one day to discover that things in her world are not quite right. She used to float but now she just falls down. By consulting with Weird Barbie she learns that a rip in the time-space continuum has occurred and that she must find the human in the real world that is messing with her doll counterpart. It's a long story but in the end Barbie chooses to leave Barbie land and enter into the real world, the world of humans thus becoming no longer "Barbie." Some of have understood the film as a protest against male domination and patriarchy or as a women's empowerment story but it's not that simple or one-sided. Granted, the men are not portrayed very well but the women even Barbie herself are not without fault. Midway through when Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) and the boys have taken over Barbie land, he blurts out to her, " [but] you failed me! Out there [in the real world] I was somebody. People respected me just for who I am." And later when the women have taken back Barbie land from the men and Ken breaks down in tears, Barbie confesses "I'm sorry I took you for granted." There are many themes in Barbie but what strikes me the most is that it's really about "what we were made for" as the beautiful theme song by Billy Eilish echoes. Stereotypical Barbie goes through this very process experiencing a breakdown in her ideal world in the process of discovering her true self. In the end, just when you think that all's well that ends well, she comes out from behind the crowd to say "I don’t really feel like Barbie anymore." Enter the creator, Ruth Handler, who brings her into an almost heavenly-like scene. She bares her heart to Ruth, "I don't really know where I belong [i.e., in Barbie land or the real world]." Finally, she asks permission to become human. Ruth says "You don't need my permission." Then comes the most profound statement in the entire film. Barbie utters:
This theme of "what we were made for" is actually a very biblical theme. Deep down inside the human heart is an innate longing for the lost world of Eden. Intuitively, we know we have a Creator and that life is the search for that meaning and purpose for which I was created. But there's one problem: the Fall (Gen. 3). This film reflects provocatively on the signs and symptoms of our fallen world. Early in the story, in the middle of an all-night dance party, Barbie says "Do you guys ever think about dying?" See Gen. 3:19. Even the ideal world of Barbie land is subject to the Fall. The real world is not much better full as it is with male patriarchy, rabid consumerism and the failed hopes of teenage feminists (cf. Sasha). But all is not lost as the script interweaves signs of hope and paradise in the real world of humanity. Barbie sees an elderly woman sitting next to her on a bus stop bench and says "You're beautiful." Barbie's transformation from the artificial world of Barbie land to being fully human in the real world is actually her redemption. For in the real world as fallen and messy as it is, it is still better to be part of a people who make meaning than the thing that is made. As I reflect on this film, I can't help thinking of Augustine's famous saying:
I could speak of many other great things about Barbie including the fine performances, the nice balance of fun and yet heart-warming scenes, innovative and creative takes on older tropes but the real 5-star clincher for me was the theme song by Billy Eilish. This song is so beautiful, fitting and meaningful. It is simply divine.
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