The storyline of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is far more sophisticated than what it lets on if the trailers for it have consistently revealed anything at all. However, the movie ends up being too clever; it’s a satire that keeps pointing out that it’s satire. By the movie’s conclusion, you want to declare, “Yes, we get it; you’re smart.”

One cannot discount the clever planning that Greta and her husband Noah Baumbach put into the scripting of Barbie. The fact that a married couple makes up the writing room is helpful because, at its core, Barbie is a struggle between the sexes. It contrasts the real world with Barbieworld, where women dominate and men are subservient, as well as yin and yang, feminism, and Ryan Gosling’s Ken and Margot Robbie’s Barbie.

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The storyline

Margot plays the traditional Barbie who, in the real world, begins to malfunction due to a design flaw at its maker, Mettle. To address the problem, Barbie and Ken set out on a joint journey into the outside world. Ken, meanwhile, receives a crash education in patriarchy while Barbie learns about the dangers of being a woman in the real world.

An introspective Barbie

Here, Barbie experiences a big crisis. Barbie completes a circle in this scene, going from having body parts act like she’s entering puberty, to learning about eve-teasing in the real world, to being gaslighted by Kens, to coming to terms with who she is. Greta humanises her just enough for her to stand on her own as a woman while still using her as a symbol of capitalism to critique consumerism, patriarchy, and beauty.

Vengeance 

In the Barbie universe, Ken represents the opposite of patriarchy. However, Ryan Gosling plays Ken so delightfully that when he discovers A-Z about patriarchy, it makes for an insightful self-deprecating study of masculinity. Watch him admire his muscles while he talks or walks like a real-life cowboy from an old Western. Ryan Gosling understands the instructions, makes a meal out of his part, and isn’t against using his disarming machismo as a means of challenging patriarchy.

All pink universe

We are immediately taken to a world where pink is the new standard. Greta hardly allows any frame go by without adding colour, from hot pink energy to rosy sunsets, pink cactus tops, candy-coated homes, and more. Sarah Greenwood, the production designer, and Jacqueline Durran, the costume designer, meticulously create a brand-new environment that makes garish and gaudy appear natural and organic.

The pink serves as an odd disguise for satire. Greta not only criticises Mattel, a co-producer and enabler of this adaption, for some of its shady financial practices but also Warner Bros in one scene for how it handled the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.

Greta is pretty liberal with her satire and keeps repeating how she’s changing the perception of the Barbie myth. Thus, the humour only occasionally works, despite the fact that one silently appreciates the shots fired with each phrase.