Film Review - IF (2024)

IF stands for Imaginary Friends and is written and directed by John Krasinski and he also stars in it as a young father needing heart surgery which his young daughter (Cailey Fleming) is sad about as she has already lost her mother to illness beforehand, one day while living in her grandmother’s apartment (Fiona Shaw) she meets a neighbour named Cal (Ryan Reynolds) who runs a matching service for abandoned imaginary friends.

IF is a lot of fun and I had a big smile on my face, it made me emotional in places and it made me laugh on occasion while also thinking that Krasinski has delivered another winning film as writer and director (his 2 previous films were the first 2 A Quiet Place films which I also really liked) and along with Wonka from late last year is a good example of what family entertainment can be like for children and grown ups.

And Krasinski manages to balance the pathos and the lightness very well, the lighter moments are full of joy and good humour (I particularly like Steve Carrell as Blue, a big Grimace like imaginary friend) and the more mournful moments are handled with sincerity and touches of sadness that tugged at my heartstrings effectively enough.

The film’s Imaginary Friends are also a lot of fun to watch, there’s a slime creature, a unicorn, a marshmallow man and even a superhero bear amongst others and they feel creative and imaginative in their scenes and one touching one for me was an old teddy bear named Louie voiced by the late great Louis Gossett Jr and sadly he didn’t live to see this movie as he passed away earlier this year and it is a sad loss.

As for Ryan Reynolds I thought he was okay but for a lot of the film he acted like a bit of a grump and after a while I started getting a bit sick of it as Ryan is at his best when he’s either playing the smart ass like he does in the Deadpool movies or when he’s radiating good natured comedy that makes you smile and that isn’t really here for the most part and it hurts the movie to a certain extent.

And so that was IF and I really liked this movie, Krasinski delivers another winner and I hope families will go and give it a look but with Garfield, Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 coming up I suspect many will save their movie going money for either of those films, 4 out of 5.