When films attempt to celebrate the essence of childhood imagination, they often reveal their own creative shortcomings. John Krasinski's latest effort, IF, regrettably joins the list of such endeavors. This cloying and oddly flat special-effects tale endlessly extols the beauty, creativity, and magic of youth while failing to capture much of it itself.
Krasinski himself does much of the extolling. After his emotionally restrained role in the sci-fi thriller A Quiet Place, he now casts himself as a whimsical dad whose dialogue might make you yearn for another alien-provoked vow of silence. "The most important stories are the ones we tell ourselves," his character asserts in one of his many heart-to-hearts with his 12-year-old daughter, Bea (Cailey Fleming). Initially, Krasinski seems woefully miscast, performing labored dad-joke routines in a hospital room. However, this awkward comedy might suit a man grappling with the task of mending his broken family after the loss of Bea's mother.
Bea is forced to stay with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) in her New York City apartment while her father prepares for a medical operation—a plot point so under-explained it borders on confusing. During her stay, Bea meets Calvin (Ryan Reynolds), a hard-pressed upstairs neighbor who shares her unusual ability to see and hear the forgotten imaginary friends—or IFs—of the world. These fantastical beings, abandoned by the children who conjured them, form a colorful posse voiced by an array of celebrities. Reynolds, coasting on sardonic autopilot, delivers a family-friendly version of his trademark exasperated quips. For her part, Fleming does deliver a performance that is full of joy, but it fails to translate into any other part of the film.
The film takes an inordinate amount of time to set up its premise, wherein Bea helps Calvin reconnect these imaginary friends with the children who outgrew them. Details are not the film's strong suit; there's no ingenuity to the fantasy world's base of operations—a carnival after hours—and the mythology governing this world is nebulous at best. "Do I disappear now?" one of the IFs asks after failing to regain the attention of its former companion, a question that underscores the poorly defined rules of Krasinski's fairy-tale universe.
The movie’s hook lies in this CGI menagerie, brought to life by enough celebrities to host an awards show. The main IFs include Blue, voiced by Steve Carell, a dim, excitable creature reminiscent of an off-brand Grimace, and Blossom, voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a black-and-white butterfly ballerina. Despite the star-studded voice cast, these characters lack depth. Their personalities are entirely the result of the Hollywood talent voicing them and the skill of the animators, not the script. The film's mascot ensemble feels more like what you’d find in a one-joke commercial, barely resembling a real movie.
Ultimately, Krasinski seems out of his element with this all-ages material. There is no enchantment in his step, no sense of wonder in his framing of digital effects, and no energy in his staging of a big group dance party. Though he may have written IF for his kids, he falls into the same trap as many filmmakers: telling us about the magic of childhood rather than showing it. "Memories, they live forever in your heart," an elderly, talking teddy bear tells Bea at one point. The sentiment is so generically uplifting that not even the late, great Louis Gossett Jr. can make it sound profound.
John Krasinski leaves the quiet tension of A Quiet Place for the family-friendly terrain of IF. Unfortunately, this clunky special-effects fable about a bereaved girl and her ability to see forgotten imaginary friends with her neighbor falls flat. Despite a giant celebrity cast, none of the colorful creatures they voice are particularly memorable. Krasinski's dialogue favors trite platitudes over genuine insights into the adventure of growing up. In its attempt to capture the whimsy and wonder of childhood, IF ultimately feels hollow, its heartfelt intentions diluted by a lack of genuine emotional depth. Krasinski's vision, though ambitious, falters in execution, resulting in a film that is more forgettable than fantastical. In the end, IF lacks the very magic of childhood imagination it seeks to champion.
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