Review: 'IF' leaves a lot to the imagination

Paramount Pictures, 2024.

It's cute, innocent and means well, but "IF" - an acronym for "Imaginary Friends" - leaves a lot to the imagination.

Grade: C

"IF" stands as a reunion of sorts between John Krasinski and Steve Carell, two of the main and most popular characters from TV's "The Office." Krasinski has carved out quite a career since those days (not that Carell hasn't, obviously), in front of and behind the camera, having shown incredible story-telling skills directing the first two "A Quiet Place" movies. "IF" is a shift of course, a family-friendly comedy that seems aimed at little ones and the parents who brought them to the theater. It's as if after "Quiet," Krasinski couldn't help himself but to go loud.

Unfortunately, "IF" is needlessly over-complicated and a wreck of a film. That's not to say that it's star, Cailey Fleming, isn't outstanding. She is. And if she's recognizable to you, it's due to her scene-stealing turn as Judith on AMC's "The Walking Dead." Her performance - again quite impressive - is not at all the problem with "IF."

Fleming plays Bea, who is forced to grow up too fast after her mother passes away. Krasinski plays her father, an endlessly optimistic man whose non-stop joking leads to many an eye-rolls from her tween-age daughter. One day, Bea sees a live, walking-and-talking cartoon character, Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and it leads her to Cal (Ryan Reynolds, in the flesh), a former clown who in somewhat of a top secret mission. You see, Cal and Bea share an ability to see IFs - imaginary friends - now discarded and forgotten by their "persons" over time. Bea reluctantly joins in to try to reunite IFs with their "persons,"  bringing joy and the remembrance of innocence lost to hundreds of human adults.

One of the main IFs she meets is the giant, fuzzy purple creature named Blue (voiced by Carell), whose name was due to the fact that his former person was color-blind. This is really the top level of imagination that the movie reaches, sadly.

Not only are Blue and Blossom bland, but so are the many other characters they meet. There is a LOT of exposition, for a family film, and just a lot of convolution in general. None of the characters - human, IFs, or otherwise - are memorable in the least.

The movie's overall message is lost, never coming into focus. It breaks its own rules, and none of it makes any real sense.  It has a few moments, like a scene involving Bobby Moynihan, who is finally reunited with his old IF, but the movie is inconsistent at best.

"IF" is a strong misfire, despite its good intentions. For a movie all about remembering, this is surely one that most movie-goers will forget.


Grade: C

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family.
Run Time: 1 hour 44 minutes.
Rated PG.

Starring: Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Alan Kim, Fiona Shaw, Bobby Moynihan, also voices of Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, (the late) Louis Gossett Jr.

Written and Directed by John Krasinski ("A Quiet Place," "A Quiet Place Part II").

"IF" is in theaters everywhere on Friday, May 17th, 2024.