IF (U)

Twelve-year-old Bea prepares for her father to undergo vital heart surgery. Living with her grandmother in New York while her father is in hospital, Bea gatecrashes the solitude of upstairs neighbour Cal, who has set up a matchmaking agency for abandoned imaginary friends (IFs). Bea discovers she possesses the same ability as Cal to see these wondrous beings, who have been abandoned by the children they once helped.

LondonNet Film Review

IF (U) Film Review from LondonNet

At a certain point in life, we are convinced to cast aside childish things and grow up. Imaginary friends are among the casualties. A Quiet Place writer-director-actor John Krasinski trades extra-terrestrials that hunt by sound for the fantastical creations of febrile young minds in a joyous comedy adventure set in a world where imaginary friends (IFs) are wonderfully real. These comforting companions congregate in a retirement home run by an avuncular teddy bear (voiced by Louis Gossett Jr), concealed beneath an abandoned amusement park’s wonder wheel…

The wonder of Krasinski’s film is its ability to quickstep between heartwarming sentiment and family-friendly humour with a menagerie of digitally rendered IFs, who gel seamlessly with flesh-and-blood actors. A misnamed purple furball christened Blue (Steve Carell), whose irresistibly cuddly design recalls Sulley from Monsters, Inc., pilfers the greatest screen time and is a merchandising dream. An amusingly droll Ryan Reynolds and teenager Cailey Fleming are a delightful on-screen double-act, galivanting around city streets as mentor and wide-eyed protegee of “a sort of matchmaking agency to help IFs find new kids”. Krasinski’s picture tips us off too early to its lip-quivering finale but being one step ahead of the characters doesn’t greatly diminish the emotional pull.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Fleming) relinquishes her grasp on childish wonder following the death of her mother (Catharine Daddario). Living with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) while her father (Krasinski) is in hospital awaiting heart surgery, Bea gatecrashes the solitude of upstairs neighbour Cal (Reynolds), who helps discarded IFs find new children in need. Bea discovers she possesses the same ability as Cal to see these wondrous outcasts including English ballet dancer Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), caped canine crusader Guardian Dog (Sam Rockwell), trench coat-clad private detective Cosmo (Christopher Meloni), rainbow-loving ball of energy Unicorn (Emily Blunt) and giant red Gummy Bear (Amy Schumer).

Bea pledges to help Cal find new homes for the stranded IFs and audition the perfect companion for a chirpy young hospital patient named Benjamin (Alan Kim). In the process, the youngster processes grief for her mother and begins to heal her psychological wounds.

Dedicated to the memory of Gossett Jr, who died earlier this year, IF is a rousing celebration of the power of imagination to conjure magic in times of great sadness and stress. The misty-eyed prologue has mournful echoes of Up and is blessed with an elegiac score from composer Michael Giacchino, who deservedly won an Oscar for Pixar’s computer-animated tearjerker. Fleming’s assured central performance leaves a lump in the throat and even if Krasinski’s script ultimately teeters over into mawkishness, the wholesome sweetness that glisters in every frame is hard to resist. Many IFs, no buts.

– Jo Planter