IF (2024)

 

I have to begin this review by saying it won't be as much of a coherent discussion as I would like it to be due to the fact I don't want to give any spoilers away.  I will try to dance around it and get as close to it as I can but I will not overstep even at the risk of sounding like an idiot.  So with that in mind let's jump into the latest offering from John Krasinski, IF,  who is writer, actor, and director, the same as he did in both of The Quiet Place films.  Oh wait, I forgot to add, he also voices one of it IFs.  IF stands for Imaginary Friend for those of you who have spent the last six months under a rock and didn't know that.  Since somewhere around New Year's Day, maybe it was closer to the Super Bowl, we have been inundated with ads for IF.  There's a ton of trailers to be found each giving us a little different view of the film but in all of them it seems to be a comedic film aimed at kids.  I'm not sure what age we are targeting here but I can tell you that in the theater I saw it in most of the kids under, oh, I'll say 8-10 didn't care for it one bit.  It's not animated so it has that going against it and I don't think kids over seven want to see anything if it's not a cartoon.  I have nothing to base this on as there are no kids in my immediate family so it's just a hunch.

 

 The kids I saw that were most interested in the film were all in the 9-12 age range and this is probably the audience it's going for as it is rated PG.  I don't think anyone over fifteen will be into this either as it's not something a teenager approaching adulthood would appreciate.  You have to go maybe into the late 20's to get to people that might connect to the story so I feel this film would appeal to a smaller audience than it thinks it does.  I kinda think us sentimental older folks "of a certain age" is who this is for and for some of us it can be disguised as a film for grandparents to take their children's offspring to see.  OK, I've gone off on that tangent for far too long, let's get to some of the other aspects of the film.  Cailey Fleming , better known as Judith Grimes in the latter seasons of The Walking Dead plays Bea a tween who has lost her mother, and while her father (Krasinski) is in the hospital waiting for an unspecified heart surgery, she goes to spend some time with her grandmother.  Her grandmother is played by Fiona Shaw who is better known as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films.  While there she sees one of the IFs that resembles a humanoid butterfly named Blossom.

 

One night she follows Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge from Fleabag and Killing Eve TV series) when she is out with a man who Bea watches enter a house through a window and bring out another large IF.  This one is covered in purple fur named Blue (voiced by Steve Carell).  Yes, the fact it's name is Blue and it is purple is addressed almost immediately.  The man, named Cal (Ryan Reynolds), lives in the same building as Bea's grandmother just a flight or two above.  Cal, who can see all the IFs, works with them trying to get them united with new kids after their original kids have long since forgotten them.  After some convincing, Bea agrees to help him.  The two of them head to Coney Island and deep down inside the bowels of the giant swing ride, Cal shows her where the IFs go when they are no longer needed.  The place is the Memory Lane Retirement Home and Cal introduces her to Lewis.  Lewis (voiced by Louis Gossett Jr. in one of his final roles before his death) is an elderly teddy bear who is in charge of the community.  He urges Bea to use her imagination to remodel the facility.  Even if Cal doesn't like the idea, she does just that.  One day while visiting her father in the hospital she meets a boy named Benjamin who seems to fall frequently and breaks a lot of bones.  Did anyone check out this kids parents?  His latest fall has resulted in a broken leg and a broken coccyx.

 

Bea asks him about his arm, which is also in a cast, and he tells her he got that from a fall before this one.  Seriously, someone check in on this kid, please!  Anyway, Bea comes up with the idea that maybe some of the IFs can be connected to some new kids since their old kids weren't using them anymore.  While a good idea, it proves ineffectual as Benjamin isn't able to see any of the IFs Bea trys to introduce him to.  Afterwards, Bea is discouraged until she meets Lewis on the Coney Island boardwalk.  Lewis tells her maybe she needs to reconnect the IFs with their former kids who are now adults.  While still not sure how to do what Lewis suggested, Bea goes back to her grandmother's apartment and looks at an old picture of her grandmother taken back when she was a young ballet dancer.  Bea sees Blossom in the picture and realizes she was her grandmother's IF.  Bea plays one of her grandmother's old records which inspires her grandmother to dance around the apartment.  Soon, Blossom begins to dance as well and as Bea's grandmother begins to remember Blossom, the IF begins to glow with a golden light.  Soon after, Bea and Cal are able to reconnect Blue with his boy, Jeremy (Bobby Moynihan) who is now a man.  Once Jeremy is reunited with Blue, both of them have a golden glow around them and Blue says goodbye to Cal and Bea.

 

 

When Bea gets back home, her grandmother tells her that something went wrong during her fathers heart surgery.  She runs upstairs and tells Cal about her father and that she isn't ready to loose him after loosing her mother to cancer.  Cal tells her to go to the hospital and instead of saying goodbye to her father tell him a story.  At the hospital Bea tells her father how she keeps trying to be a grownup but he is the one who keeps bringing fun into her life and that she still needs him to do that for her.  Suddenly her father wakes up and Bea goes to tell the news to her grandmother and it is here that my recap of the story must stop for fear of creating spoilers.  Let me give you some of the names that lend their voices to some of the other IFs.  Awkwafina (Renfield and Crazy Rich Asians) is the voice of Pop, a large bubble surrounded by smaller bubbles.  Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place and Oppenheimer) is Uni, a colorful unicorn.  George Clooney is the voice of the astronaut named Spaceman.  Bradley Cooper is the voice of Ice which is a glass of ice water.  Side note: how weird must that kid have been to come up with that one?  Matt Damon voices Sunny the sunflower.  Bill Hader (HBO series Barry and Saturday Night Live) is the voice of Banana, yep, you guessed it, a banana.  Keegan-Michael Key (from Comedy Central's Key and Peele and Keanu) voices Steven, a green glob of slime.

 

  Stand up comedian Sabastian Maniscalco is the voice of Magician Mouse, a cartoon mouse who dresses like, well, a magician.  Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Vice) lends his voice to Guardian Dog who is a dog dressed like a superhero and acts like one as well.  John Stewart from The Daily Show lends his voice to a robot named Robot proving that if nothing else, kids are definitely not creative when it comes to names.  Finally, I want to bring up that there is one IF who is invisible and named Keith.  The running joke throughout the film is Reynolds character Cal, keep tripping over him and falling down.  Being invisible means we never see Keith, and for that matter we never hear from Keith either and the character is masterfully portrayed by Brad Pitt.  Now, let's discuss the acting of the human characters specifically that of Reynolds and Fleming.  Fleming does a good job of playing the kid wanting to grow up too fast.  While she is fifteen or sixteen when the film was made, she comes across as much younger which plays to her advantage as an actor.  She seems much more grown up than her characters thirteen years would dictate but with loosing her mother to cancer at a young age and now faced with possibly loosing her father, Fleming is able to put on a brave face and soldier on with a grace much older than is expected.

 

 

There's a movie named Finding Neverland and in that movie there is a character (maybe named Charlie, off the top off my head, I forget, and I ain't looking it up,  so there!) played by Freddie Highmore and in one scene Highmore is talking about his mother who (oddly enough) has died of cancer and he manages to get one tear to well up in his eye, that for a moment his eye is more tear than it is eye.  Finally, after what seems like and eternity during which the tear just hangs there waiting to fall down his cheek, it does and it leaves a large wet trail down his face and it is such a touching and honest moment in the movie that it makes me tear up as well.  Well, here Fleming can give Highmore a run for his money as she has nearly mastered the Highmore tear.  She's cute, she's a good little actress, and I'm hoping she can make the transition from child to adult actor, if that is what she wants to do.  What can I say about Ryan Reynold?  He's as great looking as he is hilarious.  He's funnier in R rated films, but he gets the job done here.  Carell is great as Blue and while I loved him in The Office, I feel that he is an even better voice actor.  The IFs parts are all small enough (except for Blue and Blossom) that none of them are explained very much but they are what they are which is basically cameos for the voice actors.  Krasinski is nearly an afterthought in his own movie as his scenes are all subdued and while I know he's playing a heart patient the character seems very tired and worn out.

 

 

Krasinski also lends his voice to one of the more disturbing IFs and that is the marshmallow who's head is constantly on fire.  Reynolds and Fleming both do a good job of getting the point that marshmallow is difficult to look at across very nicely.  The issues I have with IF is that it is uneven and sometimes very flat.  I also had some difficult figuring out just when this movie is supposed to take place due to the fact some of the scenes look as though they are taking place during a much earlier time (due to scenery and wardrobe decisions) than the rest of the film.  That happens with little to no explanation as well.  Not all that confusing, just odd.  Yes, the movie is touching and pulls on the heartstrings as it is meant to do but it's a little bit too much of a knock on the head.  I see a lot of movies, I get it you don't have to serve it all up to me on a silver platter.  I think the average movie goer is more intelligent than this one gives us credit for.  Now for the part that is going to make me look a little dumb as I cannot fully flesh out this last complaint as I don't want to give any of the ending away.  I think IF is a little bit of a rip off of another very successful horror/thriller film from a few decades ago.  I can't say what film it is or what in IF makes me feel this way other than to say about half way through the film I figured out the ending and leaned over and told The Horror Honey Denise what I thought.  She agreed almost immediately.  So while the film leaves a bit to be desired, and it didn't seem to be an original idea, Krasinski might have some explaining and apologizing to do in the near future.  With that being said I already have the sequel all mapped out in my mind.  If you're reading this Johnny K, let's do lunch and we can talk.  In the meanwhile I will give this three dancing IV buddies out of five.  I almost went two and a half but it made me cry a little bit in two places so I bumped it up a half of a star.  There is also a nice dedication to Lewis Gossette Jr. at the end of the film after the credits that also touched my heart.