Much like the famed doll herself, everything in Barbie has been designed with both broad appeal and intimate understanding, creating a film that knows how to please. While actors inhabit the dolls they play with a self-aware sense of humor that allows viewers to be in on the joke, moving sets and puppetry replace CGI to give Barbieland the human touch it sorely needs. And while the sparkling pink façade may make it difficult for some people to see the bigger picture, every scene conceals a more somber reflection on life and death. Stereotypical Barbie's (well portrayed by Margot Robbie) existential crisis has already been widely alluded to in the trailers for Barbie, and her contemplations on death are much more than just a running joke. They actually serve as the impetus for her visit to the Real World and encounter with Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a mother-daughter team. Every film should unquestionably be able to stand on its own, and Barbie most definitely does. But it's also helped by its marketing, both consciously and unconsciously. The public has already been exposed to a number of songs from the soundtrack, and they generally capture the emotional arc of the narrative. But as soon as Barbie wakes up to Lizzo's as-of-yet-unreleased "Pink," it becomes obvious that there are still funny and touching depths to be unearthed. When characters break into song, the music enhances both the comic and the pathos, virtually winking directly at the camera at certain points in the script. Even Barbie and Oppenheimer's friendly rivalry serves to highlight how appealing the former is. The two films appear to be worlds apart at first, but they both center on the theme of how much life is worth and what death signifies in the scheme of things. It's practically hard to see Greta Gerwig's satirical dramedy in the social media age without being reminded of the memes that link it to christopher Nolan's historical epic, and this inevitability strangely works in Barbie's favor. The Margot Robbie-led tale may provide entertainment and escapism, but it also won't let viewers forget the atrocities of the Real World, either on- or off-screen. Gosling's dedication to playing Ken has received a lot of attention, and his performance more than lives up to the expectations. He is not the only actor portraying Barbie's male counterpart in Kendom; Simu Liu and Ncuti Gtawa of sex Education are both charming. However, Ryan Gosling goes above and beyond the call of duty in the part. Barbie's increasing knowledge and Ken's complete ignorance compliment each other, but the humour eventually gives way to a tragic conclusion that would crumble in the hands of a less accomplished actor. If Barbie's internal conflict is caused by the doll's evolving worldview, Ken's exterior turmoil is caused by his, elevating him well above the normal rom-com male lead. This is an essential component of Barbie's success, but it also raises the possibility that Gosling's Ken will overshadow Robbie's Barbie in what ought to be her film. Thankfully, that anxiety is incorporated into Gerwig and Baumbach's script, creating a unique gender studies exercise that doesn't feel overly didactic. Gerwig, who is a writer and a director, demonstrated in Little women how to infuse social messaging without sacrificing the humour or beauty of her story and takes it to new metatextual heights in Barbie. As a result, even though Ken is unquestionably one of the most memorable aspects of the film, he is ineffective without Barbie to bounce off of. Speaking of Robbie, Barbie's success or failure depends on how she performs. She resembles the doll that is ingrained in our culture physically, but she needs to do more than just look like the Mattel symbol. She deftly walks the balance between adhering to and rejecting preconceptions associated with Barbie, imbuing each scene with a sincerity that verges on absurd. Robbie knows when to turn down the cloying sweetness for the emotional crescendos, which is just what the satirical side of the plot needs. To underscore the bigger point of the movie, however, this Barbie needs her sisters just as much as Ken needs Barbie. One can argue that Barbie's attempt to claim the much coveted title of the summer event is unduly ambitious given that it might have easily been a delightful adventure frolic with a splash of romance. But anything less than a metacommentary on gender would have been out of place with a director as sure-footed in her vision as Greta Gerwig. Overall, Almost every dish in Barbie turns out to be fantastic, and it features some genuinely comic appetizers and unexpectedly dramatic entrées.
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