Ryan Gosling is nothing if not constant. A two-time Oscar nominee, he’s credibly performed all the things from younger idealist to delicate loner to enigmatic badass to quirky weirdo. However he’s by no means delivered something like his efficiency in Barbie, which is arguably his greatest work but. As Ken, Gosling provides actual depth to a personality who simply might have been a goofy sidekick. What’s most placing about his efficiency as Ken, although, is that he will get to be humorous. Not quirky or rom-com humorous, however actually humorous.
The 2011 movie Loopy, Silly, Love, starring Gosling as a good-looking women’ man who makes an attempt to show his womanizing methods to his newly divorced, middle-aged good friend (Steve Carell), was the primary movie the place we actually bought to see the actor play with comedy. Although it’s a gamely efficiency, most of the film’s jokes aren’t by him, however about him; the movie incessantly makes use of Gosling’s attractiveness as a punch line. (“Significantly? It’s such as you’re photoshopped!” Emma Stone’s character exclaims when he takes off his shirt.) He bought a little bit extra to do in 2016’s The Good Guys, starring as a clumsy, down-on-his-luck personal detective who groups up with an equally inept enforcer (Russell Crowe). Right here, Gosling exhibits off a pure means at bodily comedy and a present for slapstick, a step past his work in Keep in mind the Titans, Lars and the Actual Woman, and even Saturday Night time Reside—the place, once more, Gosling has been humorous, however principally as a result of he’s delivered deadpan riffs on his extra critical work.
Exterior of that handful of humorous performances, Gosling has gravitated towards extra critical work, like his intense performances in 2010’s Blue Valentine, 2011’s Drive, and 2012’s The Place Past the Pines. He’s unbelievable at restraint, usually leaving us questioning what his characters are actually pondering, as in 2018’s First Man. He additionally performs brilliant-guy-in-a-suit nicely, like in The Ides of March and The Massive Quick. Gosling’s extra critical fare has landed him two Oscar nods to date: in 2007 for Half Nelson and in 2017 for La La Land. Apart from the latter, Gosling has steered away from pure romance except for The Pocket book, and even then he was capable of mix his appeal with a touch of subversiveness to make the function rather more than it will need to have been on the web page.
That’s the factor about Gosling. He’s bought the seems of a normal good-looking film star, however he comes into each function (and most press interviews) with an offbeat smirk hovering slightly below the floor. Watching him, you get the sense that there’s lots going unsaid—an inside dialogue that’s a little bit extra enjoyable than what he’s prepared to share with the world.
And that’s what makes his efficiency in Barbie work so nicely. Gosling isn’t solely humorous within the function—all through the film, it seems like he’s truly having enjoyable. Positive, Gosling can do restraint. However why did it take this lengthy to see him actually let free?
Gosling’s Ken is fairly easy at first: a lovestruck doll who would do something for Barbie’s consideration and affection. However within the second half of Barbie, Gosling is actually unleashed. His character travels to the true world, the place he discovers that precise males have a degree of energy he didn’t know was potential. Ken then returns to Barbie Land to share the glories of the patriarchy along with his fellow Kens.
Lastly Gosling launches into “I’m Simply Ken”—a musical quantity through which he laments his “lifetime of blond fragility,” his entire id wrapped up in enjoying second fiddle to Barbie. A sneak peek of this distinctive energy ballad instantly went viral forward of the movie’s launch, however the full quantity in Barbie is even higher—principally attributable to Gosling, who performs the hell out of it whereas nonetheless having enjoyable with it. (A fast eyebrow elevate or flick of his blond hair speaks volumes.) We knew that Gosling, who starred within the ’90s revival of The Mickey Mouse Membership (and La La Land), had musical chops, however it’s his earnest, just-winky-enough supply that makes the sequence actually, nicely, sing.
It says lots that Gosling steals each scene in a really busy, absolutely saturated film full of well-known faces. Partially, it’s as a result of he can pull off each shirtless scenes and Ken’s white fur coat protecting a leather-based jacket like nobody else. But it surely’s additionally about how he balances Ken’s ridiculous nature with pathos, making us really feel some sympathy for a personality who principally turns into a villain within the movie’s second half.
