On the surface, actress and screenwriter Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie movie looks like a peaches-and-cream, pro-feminist, good vibe flick marketed to woke teenagers.
Dig a little deeper and discover the Hollywood mantra – that nothing is as it seems – or so Australian actress Margot Robbie teased in a recent interview ahead of the July 30 premiere.
“The first time I read the Barbie script, my reaction was, ‘Ah! This is so good. What a shame it will never see the light of day … because they are never going to let us make this movie’,” she told BAFTA (via Indiewire).
‘Can’t tell ya’
Grinning from ear to ear, she smugly says: “But they did!”
Then she made a ‘my lips are sealed’ gesture when asked to elaborate.
“Can’t tell ya,” Robbie said.
So if the script was so “good”, why did Gerwig’s live-action storyline get green-lit and what’s it about?
The doll was created by US businesswoman Ruth Handler and released by Mattel, Inc. in 1959, with the wholesome brand making billions of dollars over the decades with merchandise.
Barbie has appeared in 40 computer-animated films since 2001, “integrated into fairy tales, literary favourites, original stories, royal kingdoms, high-school classrooms, and … New York City”.
“These films, despite variances in animation quality that range from very good to near-uncanny CGI, have been wildly popular,” writes Collider, adding that a live-action has been in the works since 2009 with various writers and big-name stars.
Gerwig (White Noise, Little Women) is not giving anything away, except a few vague comments on a recent episode of Dua Lipa’s At Your Service podcast.
“I think there’s something about starting from that place where it’s like, ‘Well, anything is possible!’ It felt like vertigo starting to write it,” she said.
“Like, where do you even begin? What would be the story?
“I think it was that feeling I had that it would be really interesting terror.
“Usually, that’s where the best stuff is. When you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that.’ Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender,’ then you’re like, ‘OK, I probably should do it’.”
Tweet from @TechnicallyAly
Let’s ask online sleuths
Robbie stars alongside Hollywood heart-throb Ryan Gosling (La La Land, First Man), who plays Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, a male doll introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 1961.
The trailer has been released and the official storyline reads like this: “Barbie is exiled from Barbieland because of her imperfections. When her home world is in peril, Barbie returns with the knowledge that what makes her different also makes her stronger.”
The trailer gives a few more hints, including a direct homage to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and iconic movie The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.
Dorothy’s face and the Tin Man’s are on posters out the front of the Barbieland cinema, Barbie wears a gingham dress, there’s shoe references, and there’s a pink brick road (aka the yellow brick road).
TikToker Cat Quinn offers an answer: “I think we’re looking at an epic journey to another world, filled with people that she helps along the way—when she gets there, she realises this seemingly gilded place is actually pretty wicked.
“Will she ultimately realise there’s no place like home and tap her Barbie pink slippers together three times?”
Getting better.
Truman Show vibes
Escaping in the pink Barbie car … into reality … like Jim Carrey did in The Truman Show?
“I wonder if there’s some vibes of The Truman Show in the story [because] Barbie and Ken trying to leave and go to the real world gave me a bit of that,” said Sandro the sleuth.
“Barbie giving me Stepford Wives with Truman Show vibes … I’m feeling something. That car flip was a tell!”
“Think it will be like Harley Quinn,” wrote another, referencing Robbie’s portrayal of the Joker’s ex-girlfriend in Suicide Squad.
Twitter user Alyssa goes darker and reckons it’s going to “devolve” into a psychological thriller while a BAFTA fan commenting on Robbie’s cryptic post speculates about a death.
“I think this film will be a critique of the fact that today’s women try to be aesthetically perfect, like a doll, but they can even die because of that.”
Don’t think Warner Brothers or Mattel would want Barbie dead.
‘Crazy’ script
Robbie’s co-star Simu Liu teased in GQ UK that the film is “crazy” and the script was one of the best his agent has ever read.
“He literally said this verbatim,” the Shang-Chi kungfu master said.
“He was like, ‘If I could stake my career on any one script, it’s the Barbie script. I really think you should do it’.”
Gerwig said that her partner and Barbie co-writer, Noah Baumbach, was in the mix to potentially direct.
“Initially, I didn’t know I was going to direct it,” she said.
“And then it was at a certain point while we were writing it that I realised I really wanted to direct it because I thought it was so great.
“I think the moment I knew I wanted to direct it was when Noah said to me, ‘Are you sure you want to direct this?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, are you interested in directing it?’
“No, no, this one’s mine’,” Gerwig said.
