“Do you guys ever think about dying?”

…the last words you’d expect to hear out of this pretty pink doll’s mouth. But hey, even plastic can have a meltdown.

Meet Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s latest directorial debut, based on the iconic Mattel doll that has fascinated and polarized society since 1959. Viewers are whisked to Barbieland until Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to enter the human world. The gigantic success of the marketing campaign has made a national, and maybe soon international star of the film, even before its release.

Basic it is not. Barbie may come as a surprise; it’s quirky, dry, and utterly bizarre; full of giggles. There is much to enjoy, what with the pumping pop music, pink waterslides, and pastel pink tint that soaks through candy-esque Barbieland. It is a sumptuous confection of a young girl’s picture-perfect world at play.

From Barbie experiencing a flat feet crisis to the hysterically dark “Depressed Barbie” commercial, Gerwig captures attention to detail in an impeccable fashion, alongside production designer Sarah Greenwood, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who both deserve glittery awards pumping out their arses for the best set design and costumes a film has seen all year. And then there’s the ruthless opening montage of Barbie’s roots, capturing all our past crimes, from cutting and burning her locks to giving her tramp stamps; Gerwig captured chaos. And we lived for it.

Margot Robbie plays stereotypical Barbie so well. Her eyes pop in that stunned, daft Barbie-like way, yet she brings unexpected depth and weight to the doll. And then there’s Ken. He’s a hoot. Ryan Gosling is a consistent scene-stealer as he goes from Barbie’s needy doll to a macho dude. The two share sparkling chemistry and many a dry one-liner. Kate Mckinnon rocks the supporting cast as “Weird Barbie”, whose Barbie was played with “too hard”.

The recent trend of throwing a pop singer into the mix for the hell of it always manages to out-cringe itself, the latest victim: Dua Lipa, whose cameo is wooden and empty. However, we can just about look past this as her hit “Dance the Night” will have women across the country jiving in their dressing gowns – it is fabulous! Helen Mirren’s terrific irony-filled voiceover also restores our faith. She introduces us to Barbie’s misfortunes and gives us a comedic run-down of Barbie’s not-so-perfect life.

We’re all familiar with the infamous phrase “show, don’t tell”. Gerwig sadly got carried away with “telling” in act two, which features heavy political lecturing. We experience a slight tone shift from act one to act two; act one is exceptionally positive and fun, but act two experiences the testing turbulence of the odd negative bout. These moments in the script further alienate kids from the audience as the jargon thrown around will fly over their poor heads. Going to the cinema should be a positive experience, not a lecture. Gracing the script with subtlety would have worked a treat.

We are then left with an ending that pushed too hard to make the audience feel something but left us confused. The final montage felt void of creative direction, trying so hard to be artsy but felt as irrelevant as Ken did when he was denied entry into Barbie’s dream house. The ending lacked a believable resolution – did Barbie really need to go back to the real world? Let’s face it, she’s more concerned about whether her heels match her purse.

Out go the heels and in come the Birkenstocks, Barbie is a fun, pumping pink delight of nostalgia with impeccable attention to detail. But have audiences seen the light of female empowerment, or have they seen a take on feminism that’s dragged out beyond enjoyment? That’s up to you to decide. But, for a film about a plastic doll, it’s surprisingly human.