IF

Following the death of her mum (Catharine Daddario), and the recent ill health of her Dad (writer and director John Krasinski), twelve year old Bea (Cailey Fleming) moves into her Grandmothers (Fiona Shaw) apartment. 

While there she stumbles upon a world of Imaginary Friends (or IFs as they prefer to be known) and Cal (Ryan Reynolds) who’s mission in life is to re-home the IFs that have been forgotten by their children.

I have seen criticisms of IF that it may be too slow for children. Too sad for children, with its prominent themes of loss and grief. And this may be valid. As a childless thirty-three year old I can’t really speak to that.

The only perspective I can bring to this is that of a childless thirty-three year old, And for me IF was at its best when it leaned into the sadness and the schmaltz.

John Krasinski is a director who knows how to tug on the heartstrings. He did it in A Quiet Place and here he brings this trait to new levels.

From very early on IF had me totally and completely emotionally invested and it kept me on its hook for the entirety of its runtime (and caused me to shed a couple of tears along the way).

The IFs that we spend the most time with are Blossom (Phoebe Waller Bridge) and Blue (Steve Carell).

Blossom acts a little as the films exposition. Explaining, or urging others to explain, the world to Bea, and by extension, the audience. She is patient and welcoming to Bea and Phoebe Waller Bridge does a really good job at portraying this.

However the real stand out in the voice cast is Steve Carrell. He completely embodies Blues goofiness, but also his desperation. His desperation to be loved and to be seen. All traits that he brought out in probably his most famous role, in The Offices Michael Scott.

He is perfect casting, and it is difficult to imagine anyone else doing the job as well as he did.

Elsewhere in the voice cast we have - amongst others - Louis Gosset Jr. as Lewis, Awkwafina as Pop, Emily Blunt as Uni, George Clooney as Spaceman, Bradley Cooper as Ice, Matt Damon as Sunny, Bill Hader as Workout Banana, Richard Jenkins as Art Teacher, Blake Lively as Octopuss, Sam Rockwell as Guardian Dog, Maya Rudolph as Ally, Amy Schumer as Large Gummy Bear and Keegan-Michael Key as Steven.

And, as the credits stated, introducing Brad Pitt as the invisible, dialogue free, Keith.

It is one of the best casts we have seen in a children’s film - or any film - for a long time and credit to John Krasinski, and casting director Tricia Wood, for getting them all together.

This extended cast of IF’s themselves were wacky and zany, and there was some fun to be had with them, but for me, aside from a few reeky funny moments, the scenes that went hard on the wackiness were the least interesting for me.

They were scenes that I can imagine the writers having a lot of fun creating, but which did not translate fully to the screen, and they left me feeling like we could have done with a few less of them. 

In the end it felt very few of the IFs had distinct personalities, and it would have worked better for me if we had spent a little more time with those that did, rather than spending the time introducing one note, one scene, unmemorable characters, 

(The little marshmallow guy though… we can keep him!)

Cailey Fleming though, is wonderful as Bea, and the real star of IF. For such a young actor she is given a hell of a lot to do and she carries it all off effortlessly. Managing to be the standout in such a stacked cast is no mean feat, and with IF she is leaving a calling card to the industry as one to watch.

If I did have one further criticism of IF it’s that I don’t think the lore of the world holds up as well as it could have done. And maybe for the children in the audience  who admittedly IF is targeted at, this isn’t an issue. They can just let the world wash over them without worrying too much about how everything works.

But, you know, childless thirty-three year old here… it did occasionally pull me out.

It’s difficult to go into what I mean by this without giving too much of the story away, but there were just moments and occurrences which, even thinking about it now, I don’t think make sense in the world that IF is trying to build. 

Overall though, I really liked IF. Perhaps it is one that will work better for adults than it will children, who would maybe want more of the wackiness. But for me, despite its flaws, it kept me on its emotional hook for the full journey.

It is not what audiences might expect the director of the Quiet Place films to have directed next, but it does show that as a director John Krasinski has range, and it will be interesting to see what he does next.

In a word, impressed.