Taking a break from terrorising the masses with his brilliant sci/horror franchise A Quiet Place – a prequel to the first two movies is currently in the works with Pig director Michael Sarnoski at the helm – John Krasinski is back again in front and behind the camera in IF, the new live action kids movie from Paramount. And if numbers scored by early previews are anything to go by, the film looks to already be one of the biggest winners in this summer’s box office wars.
If (short for Imaginary Friend) is also written and produced by Krasinski. The film stars Cailey Fleming (The Walking Dead, Star Wars), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, Free Guy), Krasinski and legendary Irish film and stage actor Fiona Shaw, alongside the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr. and Steve Carell.
The film follows Bea (Fleming), a 12 year old girl who is still finding hard it to come to terms with the death of her mother 4 years earlier. When Bea’s father (Krasinski) is hospitalised – it is heavily implied that his broken heart needs mending in more ways than one – Bea gains the ability to sea people’s imaginary childhood friends.
Together with her mysterious neighbour Cal (Reynolds) – he is the only other person she knows who can also communicate with IFs – Bea vows to help reunite people with their old childhood imaginary friends. Along the way, the young girl learns to appreciate the short times had with her mother and all the exciting times that await her.
There a lot here that tugs at the heartstrings and it is done rather tastefully by Krasinski et al. Where the film loses some of its almost perfect shine is in its inability to tell a completely coherent story. There’s a lot of throwing things at the wall and hoping for something to come out of it, which is rather disappointing considering the potential here.
It is mostly frustrating to see Reynolds, who is usually great at ad-libbing his way through the trickiest of screenplays, fail to bring his usual bonhomie and humour to this extremely muddled storyline.
Still there remains a lot here that works, especially in the interactions between Bea, her grieving father and her grandmother (played by Shaw). Krasinski’s work behind the camera is also impeccable, I just wish his script had been a little more focused and less meandering.
On the plus side, there are just enough cute moments involving some rather chaotic IFs – a purple creature named Blue was a hit with the younger members of the family screening I attended – to make even some of the grumpiest critics crack a wry smile.
