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Barbie  ★★★

NO DOUBT a 60 year-old man’s opinion isn’t the best indicator of whether Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is any good.

But here it is anyway.

While the film is entertaining, well-acted and wonderfully imagined, the script and messaging is unfortunately a little muddled.

The film starts in a beautifully designed Barbie World that would be every young girl’s dream.

We follow Margo Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie on a typical, perfect day with the other Barbies and Kens at home, the beach and parties.

But something strange starts to happen. Barbie suddenly gets flat feet and smelly breath and visits the oracle, Wierd Barbie (Kate MacKinnon), to find out why.

Wierd Barbie advises that the problems have been caused by the girl who is playing with her in the alternative Real World and the only solution is to go there and find her.

Ken, played nicely by Ryan Gosling, insists on accompanying her and they set off, only to discover the Real World does not reflect the type of female empowerment that Barbie thinks her existence has created.

Similarly, Ken is struck by the dominance of men in the Real World, leading him to believe he can turn Barbie World into Kendom on their return.

This is a great set-up and up to this point the film is smart, funny and inventive.

It should have remained on that trajectory and continued to have some fun while making the point that it’s important to pursue your dreams but just as fine to be yourself.

But Gerwig pushes a little too deep into her laudable treatise on feminism, not just through the Barbie image but history in general.

The fun starts to wane as Ken creates his own patriarchy and the Barbies fight back in ways that almost seem too simplistic.

But then the final act brings the story back to a positive and important message that is just as humanist as it is feminist.

It just would have been nice to have a little more fun getting there.