Directors: John Krasinski
Writers: John Krasinski
Stars: Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski
Synopsis: A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone’s imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.
One of my main issues with family films, or those that strive to be heartwarming and emotional, is that they often fail to fulfill the promise of the big scene the film aims for. However, if the family-friendly picture IF never squanders the big, emotional moment that provides a greater payoff for the audience, IF is a big, warmhearted, and hopeful mainstream crowd-pleaser. In other words, it’s an IF-ing great family-friendly flick, full of love and levity that you and your children won’t soon forget.
The story, derived from an original script by John Krasinski, is followed by a young girl named Bea (played by Cailey Fleming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Loki fame), who is currently going through an emotional roller coaster. That’s because Bea is a child in crisis. Her mother died of cancer when she was young. Now, her father (Krasinski) is in the hospital with a heart issue—something so critical he has to have surgery. The script wisely stays out of the medical minutia because this is, after all, a family picture.
That means Bea is staying with her grandmother (a great Fiona Shaw) in Brooklyn, whom she hasn’t seen since childhood. Her grandmother even tries to be shown a box of drawings she made the last time they visited. There, in her grandmother’s apartment building, out of the corner of her eye, she sees an excitable (and animated) humanoid butterfly they call Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), accompanied by her human friend, Cal (a charming, as always, Ryan Reynolds).
Cal is the leader of the IFs, a group of imaginary friends for whom he is trying to help find homes. Bea follows them out at night into the streets of Brooklyn as her grandmother sleeps. Where are they going? To extract Blue (Steve Carell), a hopelessly optimistic gigantic purple furry thing who has failed to connect with the current child he has been assigned to. As they humorously try to escape the top-floor Brooklyn apartment, Reynolds catches Bea staring at him and realizes Bea has the same ability he does, seeing imaginary friends, including Blue and Blossom, who are standing behind her.
It is a new original film from John Krasinski, his fourth effort behind the camera. While initially, you may worry that this is an attempt to make a film to straighten out his R-rated directional filmography for a big payday, you slowly begin to realize the steady hand he brings to such a fun and friendly family picture. Krasinski brings notes of classic fantasy family fairs, like Big Fish, The BFG, and even Charlotte’s Web, where the main character meets a handful of crazy, eccentric, and downright adorable characters.
Krasinski’s script is more mainstream, so there are very few moments of sobering reality. That’s because a film has been crafted by him that practices the parenting skill of “the glad game,” which is almost therapeutic in a way where, in this case, Bea is being taught to look at the positive in any negative situation. You’ll notice how Krasinski’s character makes a fun game every time Bea visits him in the hospital, pretending to dance with a woman he created out of an IV stand or leaving a note for his daughter to run for it as he ties bed sheets like a rope and lays them towards the window. The message is calming, always sweetly silly, and maybe a little saccharine, but it never fails to be endearing.
IF does have its moments of sophomoric humor, which is a prerequisite for the family film genre nowadays. However, it only happens a small handful of times. Most of the humor involves Reynolds, who adds a surprising amount of straight man heart, along with the IF characters. Steve Carell is hilarious, as is Blue and Awkwafina’s Bubble. In fact, the voice cast is full of stars, including George Clooney (Space Man), Bradley Cooper (Ice Cube), Blake Lively, Emily Blunt (Unicorn), Matt Damon (Sunny the Flower), Amy Schumer (Gummy Bear), and more, including the late Louis Gossett, Jr., as Lewis the Elderly Bear in one of his final roles, which is quite poignant here.
However, most of the movie is held together by the downright adorable Cailey Fleming, who never tries to act older than she is but is still able to communicate the type of anxiety with a single, stoic, and eloquent glance that gives IF the kind of grounding it desperately needs. That’s because children create imaginary friends to create emotional regulation that is being pulled in different directions because of loneliness, which offers guidance out of solitude. That can be because Bea has no mother, stays with her grandmother, falls asleep on the couch, has little time with her father, and roams the streets of Brooklyn at night alone.
When you watch enough movies like IF, the plot becomes rather apparent. Yes, the story is somewhat original, borrowing from many. You cannot help but think the setup and Blue character were easily lifted from the Pixar classic franchise, Monsters, Inc. Yet, you cannot help but be emotionally manipulated and swept into the plight of Bea and how often solitude and loneliness are felt in adulthood. That makes the story of IF universal; as Randy Newman would say, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
