How do you make a story about a ubiquitous plastic doll worth telling? What if she suffered an   existential crisis? How do you raise the stakes for the making of the movie? What if its producer and   star suffered a crisis as well?

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Gerwig understood the problem. It was difficult to get traction, trying to embody a character who           begins in a state of blissful perfection. When the story opens, Barbie lives an entirely frictionless life in the pink perfection of Barbie Land.