REVIEW: IF (2024)

Movie Reviews

When I first started seeing posters and trailers for IF, I thought it looked atrocious. The animated characters looked cheesy and poorly integrated with the live-action characters and backgrounds. But worse than that, it seemed thoroughly unoriginal; all I could think of was Monsters, Inc. crossed with Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. I like Ryan Reynolds, but he’s no stranger to bad comedies, and I don’t love John Krasinski’s other big directorial effort, A Quiet Place. In short, there was nothing about this film that appealed to me, and I probably would have skipped it altogether, but the Regal app offered bonus credits for buying tickets, and that’s what got me in to see IF. Let’s have a look.

IF stands for “Imaginary Friends,” specifically ones who need new humans/homes. This world becomes visible to Bea (Cailey Fleming) when she returns to her grandmother’s (Fiona Shaw) summer home. While Bea’s dad (John Krasinski) goes through surgery, she spends time with Calvin (Ryan Reynolds,) a guy trying to re-home abandoned imaginary friends. Finding new kids for the IFs proves to be a bigger challenge than Bea expected, and her father’s health problems put stress on the young girl. Can Bea help her new friends and admit she still needs love and support?

Let me start by saying that I knew from the first scene that IF was better than I expected it to be. I don’t think this is a perfect film or even a great one, but it’s not horrible. I will never understand why they often use a movie’s worst bits in the trailer. IF is underperforming at the box office, and I think the blame lies with the marketing. IF has a good cast and a respected director, but the trailer just looked goofy. And don’t get me wrong, this movie is a comedy and has its silly elements. But the worst, least funny ones are in the trailer. All that being said, I’m going to get what I didn’t care for out of the way first.

IF isn’t very funny, especially at first. This film is a comedy and leans into this early on; I’m thinking about some of the imaginary friends, like Blue (Steve Carell), as well as Bea’s father. I can see the humor in Bea’s dad dancing with his IV stand, but the execution just isn’t funny. I know Krasinski was on The Office, a show many people find funny, but could it be that comedy just isn’t his strong suit? There are a couple of good gags near the end, and Ryan Reynolds does what he can. But despite being primarily a comedy, this film only made me (and my audience) laugh a couple of times.

I don’t know how this could have been avoided, but IF is way too much like too many other films. I got hints of Monsters, Inc., Christopher Robin, and a lot of vague déjà vu. It didn’t remind me as much of Foster’s as I thought it might, although it is weird that both prominently feature imaginary friends named Blue. I don’t know if this is really the film’s fault or if it was inevitable for a movie about imaginary friends, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t distract me, mostly near the beginning. Some of the performers overact their parts, like Carell and even Krasinski. This mostly happens in the scenes that are supposed to be funny. My biggest gripe with IF is a particular scene where a setting is shaped and changed by a character’s imagination. The concept is fine, but it looks terrible, I didn’t like the song that played, and the whole sequence just took me out of the experience. This is the only scene in which I noticed bad animation. The creatures actually look good, but the effects on buildings and settings stink, whereas I’m used to it being the other way around.

However, I liked the acting for the most part. John Krasinski and especially Ryan Reynolds are quite charming, and Cailey Fleming does well in the serious scenes. I actually think the scenes without the imaginary friends are superior to those with them, except for Lewis (Louis Gossett Jr.) and one other character. It’s a spoiler, but you can probably guess who it is. Lewis strikes the right balance between cuteness and sincerity and reminded me of Winnie the Pooh, and not just because he’s a bear. The other character has fantastic chemistry with Fleming, even better than Krasinski playing her father. I think this character is meant to parallel her father, their bond being an expression of what she’s unable to tell him directly. It’s bittersweet, both touching and a little sad.

The original score by Michael Giacchino is good, of course. Giacchino is one of my favorite composers, but this is one of his weaker scores. It’s good and serves the film well, but his work is often remarkable and elevates the material. IF’s score does its job well enough, but it doesn’t do anything exciting or new. The animated characters look surprisingly good and mesh well with their live-action surroundings and co-stars. There are a couple of really cool artistic visual flourishes, like a short segment where Ryan Reynolds gets stuck in a painting and emerges from it still in painted form. For a film like this, some of the effects are surprisingly inventive. It’s no Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but it’s not half bad, either.

Overall, IF is a decent time at the movies. I don’t wholeheartedly endorse the film, but if you don’t want to see anything else, and especially if you have kids, it’s probably worth a trip. I suspect parents will get the most out of this movie. It was just okay to me, but my husband (who has a young daughter) was in tears by the end.