IF
review by Bobby Blakey
John Krasinski successfully stepped out of his Jim persona from The Office when he first took on the role of Jack Ryan in the TV series and then brought the successful horror film The Quiet Place to the big screen. Now he is once again taking on double duty, stepping behind the camera as well as lending his voice to his latest film IF. The film features a great cast including Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, and the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr. and Steve Carell.
IF follows a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends and what she does with that superpower as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.
I knew going into this film there was a big hill to climb to make this work. Could it navigate itself into a family film that may connect with adults and kids, or will it be so wrapped up in the world building and magic and in the end get lost? Well, the answer is both really. The draw here is obviously all the various imaginary friends and they are all outstandingly entertaining and the story itself is good, but it gets lost in itself at times trying to merge it all together.
The cast are all great with Reynolds kind of taking the back seat to the varying magical characters and young Cailey Fleming leading the charge. She does a good job bringing emotions and magic to her journey, but it is often knocked off track trying to unleash so much chaos of this world. She has great chemistry with both Reynolds and Krasinski with all their moments bringing the heart of the film together. The biggest issue is that it weaves into pulling the heart strings with success, but then shoehorns a joke in and loses its steam at times.
There are some that work great, but not all of them.
As the story unfolds it lends itself to a bigger mystery of it all that keeps you guessing up until the ending that I found enduring and worked. The biggest success here are the characters themselves and the beautiful CGI. Some of them only get a little bit of screen time, but all of them are great. Each of them get a moment to bring the laughs, with all the cast doing a great job with their voice work. Of them all its Steve Carrell’s Blue that steals the show. He is such a fun loving clumsy off of a character that you can’t help but love him. With him and the other IF’s you get some great moments with other characters as well one of my favorites being a small but important sequence featuring Bobby Moynihan.
I would be lying if I didn’t say this film was deeper than I expected. It is filled with fun, heart and sadness that should have been a home run but ended up being uneven. At the same time, I was entertained and think it will find its audience for the sheer creativity and tone of it all for families.
In addition to the film, this release offers bonus content including gag reel, featurettes and more. Join the world of imagination and grab your copy of IF available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on August 13th from Paramount Home Entertainment.
