01/02/2024 By Daniella Daoud
A review on Barbie, the movie.
Walking into the cinema expecting to watch a light-hearted movie, I walked out having a heavy heart but in such a content way. It was the furthest thing I expected from what I saw in the trailers. It is not a kid’s movie. Not because there is anything inappropriate during it, it is so much deeper than anything a child could ever relate too, understand, or enjoy. I was shocked of the complexity of the storyline and how it hits you hard, especially watching it as a woman.
Greta Gerwig casting Margot Robbie as Barbie felt so deliberate in such a positive way. Not because she looks the way she looks, and she is that talented but because when you think of Margot Robbie’s career. She has been casted into movies made by men for men as a sort of living doll over and over. Then she is cast as Barbie for Greta’s movie about the most famous doll of all time, made by a woman for women. She walked onto that set as a sex doll in the mind of so many men across the world and left it as an icon for women and girls.
The best description of the movie is you laugh and then you are sobbing from another emotional scene, yes in my case I was sobbing. It is hard being a girl. It slaps you with a dose of reality, but it masks it with comedy. Barbie mirrors us as an audience as we all walk around like Barbie does, we get dressed, we do our everyday routine, but we are struggling inside. It exploited the complexity of Barbie and how she is put into a position of power and sexualised and how that is also transpired over to us women. They portray this through Barbie World vs Real World. Mattel took a lot of ownership and responsibility in this movie by owning a product that has been quite destructive to women and society. Barbie healed many women around the world.
One of the most moving moments of the movie was America Ferrera’s speech, who plays Gloria from the Real World. Her, being a Latina woman has inspired every single girl and woman in that cinema and what it is like to be a woman perfectly.
This movie exceeded my expectations as the powerful message it was portraying. Empowerment and individuality. Barbie addressed gender stereotypes and that the idea that women can be anything that they want to be in a world where women have been belittled and underestimated.
Watching a movie like Barbie provides a positive narrative and it is inspiring to women. It portrays how our society is still largely male dominated with certain expectations imposed on women. Barbie breaks free from all that.