Have you never thought about dying?

By Marilú Acosta

Barbie's movie is not for me. I knew it before I saw it and I checked it after I saw it. By this I don't mean to say it's good, bad, average, doesn't say or does say this or that, I'm just saying that Barbie's movie is not for me. What it has been for me is everything that happens outside the movie theater. That phenomenon that many attribute to marketing and the truth is that marketing is far from being able to generate such a change in behavior. The pink tide would be enough for an extraordinary phenomenon, to which we must add the talks and reflections generated by the gender issue. It has also broken more than 10 box office records, one of them being the worldwide income in its first two weekends: more than 795 million dollars.

Why all the fuss? Well, Barbie has always been a hit, so it's not unusual for that fascination with dolls to carry over to the screen. The pandemic also has something to do with it. The script was written during the lockdown and in a way is a reflection of what the world experienced, have you never thought about dying? Several times we ask ourselves that question, at least during that 2020, and knowing how that perfect world of Barbieland resolves the existential crisis helps. There are winks and homages to great films, not only visually, but it also translates "deep" scenes to "shallow" scenes. Morpheus (The Matrix, 1999) becomes Weird Barbie and the choice between a red pill and a blue pill is transferred to a heel and a sandal. Neo, the chosen one (male) chooses the red pill to get out of the illusion, leaving aside the blue one that would keep him inside the illusion. The chosen one, Barbie Stereotype (female) chooses the heel, which keeps her in Barbieland, but Barbie Weird gives her a choice again directing her attention to the sandal. We then accompany La-Elegida-Barbie-Stereotype-Barbie on an adventure that ceased to have enough narrative tension to keep me awake. Yes, I fell asleep for part of the movie.