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| Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures |
John Krasinski’s IF is a charming fairytale metaphor for the struggling inner child, a romp through a colorful menagerie of creative characters seeking a connection to the past through childlike senses of imagination. When twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) moves into her grandmother’s apartment, with her father in the hospital suffering a serious illness, she discovers that she can see people’s imaginary friends – called “IFs” for short – and tries to help her neighbor Calvin (Ryan Reynolds) to bring them into the lives of children who need them. IFs are only typically seen by children, and when they are outgrown, they tend to disappear unless they can find a new connection. But finding new children for these IFs proves an impossible task, and Bea isn’t convinced that their old friends don’t really need them anymore. She sets out to instead reconnect the imaginary playmates with their original kids as adults, in a sweet metaphor for the awakening of the inner child in all of us.
There is a fantastic cast of imaginary creations, from Blue (Steve Carell), a sneezy mountain of purple fur and good intentions, to two-tone butterfly Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), whose affinity for tea is only surpassed by her love of dance, and a panoply of strange and wonderful imaginary creations. Each one really just want to protect and serve a child, and as Bea learns how to help them, she makes a lovely revelation about herself – and her heart, stuck halfway between childhood and adulthood.
The film’s strengths are in its cast – IFs are voiced by the likes of Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, John Stewart, Christopher Meloni, and many other prominent celebrities who bring the creatures to life in touching and funny ways. (It can’t be easy creating a voice for an ice cube suspended in a glass of water, but Bradley Cooper manages it with gusto.) The problem is, most of the characters really don’t get a good chance to develop a relationship with the audience, and the story doesn’t offer any real conflict to get to know them better. Even though it tries to focus on just a main few, there really isn’t enough time spent exploring their world. Why exactly Bea has the rare ability to see them seems to have something to do with her needing to grow up quickly without her mother and with her father indisposed, but even she falls flat as a character because we simply don’t get to know her very well.
IF reaches for the inner child, suggesting that we all need a connection to the wonder and whimsy we felt before the “real world” stripped us of our deepest dreams and wishes, but while it presents a world of characters who can help us do that, it doesn’t really let us linger there. Imaginary friends are all around us in the universe the film posits, but it merely suggests that the only thing keeping us from seeing them is our own lack of a sense of who we used to be. Bea doesn’t magically become a child again, but she’s no longer so fussed about growing up – which is likely the feeling we’re supposed to take from the story.
For a family film with a delightful premise and a
star-studded ensemble of pleasurable characters, IF is an enjoyable enough
diversion, but it lacks any real sense of who its players are or why they need
to fight so hard to be seen. It’s left ambiguous as to why its heroine holds
her unique ability, and we’re unfortunately left to flounder in the search for
our own inner child. With a little more time and clear motives and conflict,
the narrative might have been far more enlightening and full of heart.
-Dana Culling