After discovering she can see everyone's imaginary friends, a girl embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten imaginary friends with their kids.
IF is directed by John Krasinski director of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009), The Hollars (2016), A Quiet Place (2018) and A Quiet Place Part II (2020).
I really do not have a whole lot to say about IF it's a kids movie that is very well intentioned and even has some genuinely heartfelt moments, but is surrounded by some clunky execution especially during the last half of the movie.
Steve Carell is by far the standout here, while not every single joke lands and the character of Blue is sort of standard. Carell still manages to be entertaining as well as charming, it's sort of hard to really mess up when it comes to Steve Carell (heck I don't a lot of the Despicable Me movies but really like Gru) plus I do think he fits the charming imaginary friend feel the movie is going for. Cailey Fleming is also not bad here, while she isn't perfect, much like Carell she gives a sweet and charming performance that is effective and matches the tone of what the movie is going for. Ryan Reynolds strangely feels miscast here, he sort of just exists and his character Cal is incredibly forgettable who while does have a few strong scenes really fails to connect with the viewer.
The idea of the movie surrounding the imaginary friends is solid and isn't as much as a repeat of the Cartoon Network show Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends as the trailer made it out to be. Having that said the main problem with IF is a lot of the Imaginary friends being voiced by Hollywood celebrities, it takes away a lot of the whimsical and magical feeling of imaginary friends and becomes a cameo fest. A bunch of moments where you point at the screen and say "oh I know that person's voice!" Had this been one or two times it would not be so much of a big deal, however this is a common occurrence throughout the movie and that sort of becomes the imaginary friends's whole character that they are voiced by Hollywood stars.
It's a shame too because there are some genuinely heartfelt moments here that do actually work, but are unfortunately not exactly the main focus. The movie works best when it focuses on the bond of Bea and Blue and the more human moments, which is incredibly surprising to say given that this movie is about the imaginary friends.
I think IF will do well for younger audiences since it does immediately have bright visuals and creature designs are admittedly quite fun, IF is not necessarily a terrible movie but this is a very forgettable one that could have been a lot more.
IF is available on all VOD platforms.
4/10 D+
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