‘IF’ (review)

There was a time when John Krasinski was predominantly known for comedy, but audiences today will also know him as a more versatile and well-rounded performer thanks to more recent roles such as his turn as the eponymous character in the action thriller series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, not to mention his exceptional work both in front of and behind the camera with horror A Quiet Place, and it is delightful to see him work on something completely different once more with IF, as he continues to expand his repertoire as a filmmaker.

IF sees the girl Bea (Cailey Fleming) discover that she can see the imaginary friends of others, and the film poses the question of what happens to the imaginary friends of children once those children become adults.

The voice cast is a who’s who of Hollywood stars such as Steve Carrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Louis Gossett Jr., and Ryan Reynolds continues his streak of playing himself, this time as Calvin, a former clown whom Bea teams up with to help the imaginary friends.

If that synopsis sounds vague, it is because there is not much to draw from to explain the outline of the film, which is not so much down to the film having an intricate plot with many twists, but rather due to how flimsy its narrative framework is.

The film has good moments, but the surrounding narrative framework feels like a formulaic afterthought in order to pad out a feature-length script, as there is nothing that ties the aforementioned good moments of cute creative whimsy together with the sad real world elements in a meaningful way, just as those real world elements are often egregiously banal to the point of being on par with something one would expect to find on the Hallmark Channel.

Having a contrast between stark reality and joyful imagination can be a great juxtaposition that works wonders to ground an other-wordly narrative, but in the case of IF, the reality portion often falters to melodrama that verges on being emotionally manipulative, resulting in the imaginative scenes being little more than colorful vignettes aimlessly floating around with no sincere narrative structure to ground them and make them impactful.

The digital effects are mostly good, albeit there are composite shots that stand out for all the wrong reasons, as the rendering leaves a lot to be desired in a handful of moments.

What is mostly disappointing about the digitally rendered imaginary friends, however, is that they seem almost too perfectly polished to truly be the concoction of boundless creative imagination.

This is not to say that children and their imaginations are not creative or nuanced – they most certainly are – but the film’s digital characters are distinctly lacking in the chaotic whimsy that can often be a part of an imaginary friend, which once again makes the film feel woefully lacking in depth.

Finally, the humor also mostly falls flat. The odd gag or throwaway line works, but the jokes are overwhelmingly forced or stilted, and aside from one running gag having a particularly good pay-off at the very end, the film does not manage to deliver on the comedy either, which is deeply disappointing when the likes of Krasinski and Reynolds are involved.

The concept of IF is interesting, and while it is not a bad film per se, it misses the mark to become a new classic due to the execution being much too lacking for the film to be sincerely impactful as it leaves too much up to the imagination, and in the case of a film that is, ironically, about imagination, that is unfortunately not a compliment.

Verdict: 4 out of 10.

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Produced by John Krasinski, Allyson Seeger, Andrew Form, Ryan Reynolds
Written and Directed by John Krasinski
Starring Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Fiona Shaw, Bobby Moynihan
Featuring the Voices of Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr.,
Awkwafina, Bradley Cooper, Bill Hader, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Richard Jenkins