John Krasinski directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in 2018’s dark thriller A Quiet Place. In 2020, Krasinski wrote and directed A Quiet Place Part II, continuing the story from two years earlier. Adding to the movies are his success on television with The Office (2005 – 2013) and the co-production of the successful “reality” show Lip Sync Battle (2015 – 2019). All this success has led to Krasinski’s recent Hollywood cred rising through the roof; and, it leads directly to the release of IF, Krasinski’s first, basically auteur (writer / director / actor), production. IF wants to be everything for everyone, including a comedy, a drama, and an animated fantasy. IF is certainly an animated fantasy with dramatic parts. The one thing it lacks completely is a sense of humor.
Buy IF 4K UHDThe movie opens as a young girl, Bea (Cailey Fleming), watches the slow, agonizing death of her cancer-riddled mother. Cut to a couple years later, and Bea is moving in with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) for a spell because her father (John Krasinski) now needs invasive, crazy dangerous heart surgery. So far, it’s a laugh riot! While her father is in the hospital, Bea begins to see a strange, animated, black and white butterfly named Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and her human friend, Cal (Ryan Reynolds).
Blossom is an IF, Imaginary Friend, who would like to be reunited with her real person who forgot about her long ago. It is a quick jump to many, many IF’s begging Bea and Cal to help reunite them with their humans; and, of course, the film is simple-minded enough to go exactly where you think it is going to go without any interesting sub-plots or surprises. Bea and Cal spend the rest of the film attempting to reunite imaginary friends with their real friends to varying degrees of success. There are a bunch of set pieces meant to tickle the funny bone; unfortunately, most of them fall flat.
The viewer spends too much of the film worried about Bea’s dad to appreciate any fun or humor in the situation. We already know this is a film that is willing to kill off one parent, so what is to keep it from slaying two? Also, Ryan Reynolds’ Cal is obviously meant to be the comic relief, but he comes off as standing back and trying to hand scenes to Bea. Cailey Fleming is a strong, young actress, but in no way can she carry the film in the way we know Ryan Reynolds probably could. IF is too scary for the very young, too boring for teens, and a complete disaster to any discerning adult.
Bonus Features:
- The Imagination Behind IF
- Imagining Imaginary Friends
- Giving IFs a Voice
- Blending the Real and the Imaginary
- Tina Turner Forever!
- The Imaginative World of IF
- Gag Real
- Learn to Draw Blue from IF
