IF asks us to reject the adult and find the kid inside, and if you can do that, it becomes a fun, big-hearted, and imaginative journey that encourages you to embrace and set free the inner child from your jaded adult shell. IF arrives in cinemas nationwide on Friday, May 17.
When did you last use your imagination? I’m not talking about a new spreadsheet at work or devising a creative way to increase your home storage space. I’m talking about the abundant ability we all have to create stories, characters, and worlds; it’s the imagination that surrounds us as kids and sits dormant in every one of us as adults, locked away by the pressures of the adult world. Occasionally, a film asks us to dust off the key to that locked room and allow our inner child and imagination to come out to play. John Krasinski’s IF is one of those films.
Big-screen family features are rare in our modern world. Children and parents have been encouraged to believe that the only films for them are the latest Pixar and Disney releases, with many non-Disney movies ending up in the crowded landscape of straight-to-streaming, where they are quickly lost. It’s a far cry from the family– and kids-focused releases of the past, when multiplexes would have movies like Free Willy, The Sandlot, My Girl, or The Boy Who Could Fly playing in packed theatres.
The current landscape of family flicks is a sad indictment of a studio system that now sees little mileage or profit in making kids’ films, especially live-action ones with a dedicated theatrical window. Krasinski’s IF is a defiant attempt to bring those films back, with a hybrid mix of live action and animation, a timeless and delightful orchestral score from Michael Giacchino, and a story that asks us to leave the outside world behind and enjoy a menagerie of wonderfully creative IFs (imaginary friends).
In a Brooklyn brownstone apartment, twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) is desperate to leave her childhood behind as she attempts to navigate the loss of her mum at a young age and her dad’s upcoming heart surgery. As he goes into the hospital, Bea is fearful that she might lose him despite his cheerful banter and reassurances. Still, she won’t let it show because she is an adult now and accepts the disappointments, fears and uncomfortable realities it brings.
As Bea moves in with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw), her granny’s attempts to rekindle the creativity and imagination Bea used to love in her drawings and stories are quickly rebuffed until Bea spots a mysterious man, Cal (Ryan Reynolds), breaking into someone’s home in search of a massive purple monster with a big heart called Blue (Steve Carell). Blue was assigned to the kid as a new imaginary friend after losing his creator to adulthood, but things haven’t exactly gone to plan, as his new kid is terrified of him!
With the assistance of another IF, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Blossom (a butterfly and a ballet dancer), Cal removes Blue from the house and takes him back to his top-floor attic room in the same apartment block as Bea. There, he spots Bea and quickly realises she can see him and the IFs he supports. As Cal, Blue, and Blossom invite Bea to join them for tea, Bea learns that Cal is trying to match lost and lonely imaginary friends with new kids who can support them. But maybe it’s the children who once created them and then discarded them as adults who need them the most.
IF isn’t perfect. The opening thirty minutes are a tad slow for young kids as Krasinski introduces us to Bea, her dad, played by himself, and her loving Gran, alongside snippets of their backstory. Equally, IF sometimes borrows too heavily from Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., and doesn’t always hit the mark with its gags for either the kids or the adults in the audience.
However, there is also much to love in Krasinski’s big-hearted love letter to imagination and the inner child that resides in all of us. With voice performances from Matt Damon, Louis Gossett Jr, Emily Blunt, Sam Rockwell, Bradley Cooper and Awkwafina, to name just a few, the IFs are glorious in their design, reflecting the pure wonder, imagination and craziness kids wield. Anyone who has ever sat drawing characters with their young kids, nephews, nieces or siblings will recognise just how wonderfully accurate these random and bizarre characters are, from a giant gummy bear to an ice cube tired of perpetually floating in a glass of water, a superhero dog and a forever melting marshmallow. It’s almost as IF Krasinski asked a group of kids to draw each character before adding them to the story.
Equally strong is the message that we far too quickly discard our childhood imagination in the race to grow up, and often don’t realise just how much we lost until it’s gone.
Some critics will likely focus on the problems at the heart of Krasinski’s imaginative feast, and, as often happens with kids’ films, they will ultimately view the movie through an adult lens. But IF asks us to reject the adult and find the kid inside, and if you can do that, IF is a fun, big-hearted and imaginative journey that encourages you to embrace and set free the inner child from your jaded adult shell. And let’s face it, in our current world, we all need that opportunity to escape.
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