If nothing else, IF (Imaginary Friends) has its heart in the right place. Written and directed by John Krasinski, it’s a sincere attempt to create something atypical of the big-budget family film that usually cleans up at the box office. Sweet-natured, sentimental and surprisingly low-key compared to, say, Despicable Me 4, it’s a movie loaded with good intentions and difficult to completely dislike.
On the other hand, the film is never fully engaging, despite an appealing blend of live-action and animation to tell its story. It’s about 12-year-old Bea (Cailet Fleming), who moves into her grandmother’s apartment while her father (Krasinski) is in the hospital awaiting heart surgery…the same hospital where her mother died of cancer five years earlier.
Bea also sees a few strange creatures lurking in the same apartment building. Following one of them upstairs, she meets Cal (Ryan Reynolds), the caretaker of numerous imaginary friends (aka, IFs). He’s trying to place them with new children after their old ones have since grown up and forgotten about them. For reasons not made quite clear, Bea is able to see them, too. And when finding new kids for the IFs keeps failing, it’s her idea to hook them back up with the old ones, even though they’re now adults who need their memories jogged.
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| "Just bear with me. Get it? BEAR with me?" |
Speaking of wandering, for a movie aimed primarily at children, IF takes a long time to get rolling. When it finally does, the film is still frequently meandering and features little in the way of genuine conflict. That’s not to say a movie has to be loaded with visual and narrative fireworks to keep kiddos amused. But despite the consistently congenial tone, likable characters and some whimsical moments, IF is a movie without any emotional highs or lows…not even any bad guys.
Still, IF is a cute, innocuous film that features good overall performances and charming animated characters that look wonderful in 4K. With easy-to-grasp themes and a complete absence of low-brow humor, it’s the true definition of a family-friendly film. But an air of detachment hangs over the entire thing, which ultimately keeps it from being something special…maybe even to its intended audience.
EXTRA KIBBLES
FEATURETTES - The Imagination Behind IF features numerous interviews and behind-the-scenes footage; Giving IFs a Voice is about the ginormous voice cast; Imagining Imaginary Friends focuses on the various animated characters; Blending the Real and the Imaginary is about how live action and CG animation are combined; Tina Turner Forever! is self-explanatory if you’ve seen the movie (RIP, Tina).
ACTIVITY - How to Draw Blue from IF.
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