Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell

Directed by Greta Gerwig

Warner Bros., out now

Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.

She’s a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic. Except, this probably isn’t the film you were expecting. I wonder how many parents will take along their doll-crazy youngsters, expecting a live-action version of the typical early-2000s animated Barbie movie fare (The Nutcracker, Princess and the Pauper, etc) and realise that isn’t what they’ve paid for?

The first clue is the rating – 12A for ‘Moderate innuendo, brief sexual harassment, implied strong language.’ But the biggest clue is the director, Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird), who was unlikely to be devoting her talents to a regular toy product tie-in. And what a film she has delivered – one of the smartest summer movies for a very long time.

Barbie (a perfectly-cast Margot Robbie) lives a perfect life in the company of fellow Barbies, who are living equally successful lives. And then there’s the buff Kens (and one Alan) who exist to… be Kens. One day, Barbie wakes up to a fear of dying and developing cellulite and only by going to the real world can the rip in the continuum be fixed.

What follows is a hilarious caper that makes some big points about feminism, toxic masculinity, consumerism, mental health, and so much more. Robbie was born to play Stereotypical Barbie, though she does have the movie stolen from her by Ryan Gosling’s nice-but-dim Ken. Whether you’re chuckling at the next joke or spotting another celebrity in the cast, it’s a joy to watch. Who would have thought it?

Verdict: Smart and very funny, it’s not the movie we expected. 9/10

Nick Joy

When Barbie’s perfect day is ruined by thoughts of her own mortality, she is sent on a quest to heal a dangerous rift between Barbieland and reality.

There’s no doubt Barbie gets off to a great start – setting out its meta stall with a fabulous nod to one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. A minute into the action satirical sci-fi nerds are thinking: ‘This is going to be great!’ – while parents who have brought their tinies along for some harmless live action doll fun are thinking: ‘This is going to be a very long two hours!’

So, then we have an introductory act where the absurdities of Barbieland are played out with more meta winks than in a post-modern wink-off (I’ve been to one and they’re very twitchy affairs)… and that’s great fun too, with Gosling and Robbie clearly enjoying themselves hugely and toymakers Mattel making it clear that they are happy to laugh at themselves. As someone far wittier than me once said: ‘Post-modernism means never having to say you’re sorry’.

But it’s all bright and colourful and good natured, and there are songs and dances, and the parents are thinking: ‘We might just get away with this…’

In act two, Barbie, now plagued with self-doubt, is sent to the Real World to heal the rift that is ruining her life (not a spoiler – it’s in the trailer) and this is lots of fun too, especially as Gosling’s gormless Ken discovers that men have a far better deal dominating society than in his Barbie-centred existence back on the plastic beach. However, they’ve just started talking about vaginas and penises and the parents are hoping the littlies didn’t catch that above the chomp of popcorn.

Unfortunately, as the movie grinds awkwardly through its third and fourth acts, it starts to buckle under the weight of its own concept, as it turns into a Barbie-themed exposition of feminist and post-feminist theory – think Germaine Greer, Kate Millett, Andrea Dworkin (insert feminist writer of your choice) for Dummies. This is all fine up to a point. As a young actor in the 1980s I participated in many not very good politically correct theatre productions where patriarchal stereotypes were forced to confront the error of their ways. We were always attempting to be funny but at heart we were lecturing people, and the shows were never very satisfying. Perhaps I’m burned by this experience, but Barbie sinks into the same trap, and this middle section is hard going – not helped by Will Ferrell managing to be surprisingly unfunny. But does it add to a popular understanding of feminism and patriarchy? Possibly – however I’m guessing that you need to already share those opinions to congratulate yourself on how funny you find it, which inevitably starts to feel a bit smug.

Regardless of where you stand on that, the kids are getting really fidgety now, and behind me a brave mum is trying to decode third wave feminism for her baffled four-year-old.

However, the one-liners keep coming and the film just about holds its own, recovering in its closing movement, concluding with possibly the best gag of the whole movie.

Verdict: As long as you know that Barbie isn’t for kids there’s lots to enjoy, and plenty of laugh-out-loud gags even in the slightly boring bits. Is it a good movie that hangs together? Not really, but it manages to be enjoyable enough despite itself. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com