No one really knows when from where inspiration will strike. An innocuous action, a stray thought, a random observation — anything is ripe for seeding a new concept or approach. For writer/director/actor John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), inspiration for his latest project, the family-oriented IF (short for Imaginary Friends), was born out of observing his children in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He discusses this briefly in the featurette “The Imagination Behind IF,” describing the act of having an IF in the real-world as a coping mechanism for a variety of things, becoming the kernel which would pop into a story of childhood loss, resilience, and hope. In the execution, IF is a film for young adults who’ve yet to lose the spark of imagination and adults who think its too late to recapture who they once were, wrapped in a package that doesn’t hide from the pain of growing up and all the things that are attached to it. So many young adult tales avoid reality, opting to lean into hyperreality that the oft-joked about “trauma” of films like The NeverEnding Story (1984) or The Land Before Time (1988) never shied from, making them seem like a thing of yesteryear. To this end, Krasinski’s IF is an unexpected throwback that nails the difficulty of childhood and the transition into adulthood without talking down to its audience while strangely forgetting to explore stated elements of the narrative, thereby creating a sense of absence. That said, if you’re a fan of the film and looking to dive deeper into it, the home release, in both digital and physical formats, includes seven featurettes and one gag reel that will guide you through the entire development process.
L-R: Ryan Reynolds (Cal) and Cailey Fleming (Bea) in Paramount Pictures’ IF. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Bea’s (Cailey Fleming) already lived a lifetime at twelve after the untimely death of her mother (Catharine Daddario) and now she’s facing the possibility of the same for her father (Krasinski) as he prepares to undergo surgery for his heart. Moved back in with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) in New York City as her father prepares for the procedure, Bea’s reluctant to go through her old things from when they last stayed there prior to her mother’s death. One night, when going out for some supplies, she stumbles across a strange man who’s standing outside a house seemingly yelling at no one, only to see a giant purple creature with him. Tracking them back to the same building her grandmother lives in, Bea is introduced to the man, Cal (Ryan Reynolds), and the creature, Blue (voiced by Steve Carell), and an animated-looking young lady named Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge). There, she learns about IFs, imaginary friends that are very real and some that have lost their kids due to growing up. With the ability to see them, Bea and Cal set out with Blue and Blossom to see what can be done to take these lonely IFs and provide them a partner.
**As a home release review, some spoilers will be provided throughout the following exploration. Be advised and tread lightly if you’re not interested in having anything spoiled for you.**
At the outset, IF is a fairly straight-forward film: disillusioned young girl goes on a journey of reinvigoration that enables her to process her grief and embrace the world via an extraordinary adventure. It’s very Spielbergian, very Amblin Entertainment (The Goonies; The Adam Project), to tell a story from a child’s perspective to be able to speak to children without (hopefully) talking down to them in the process. As writer/director, Krasinski does manage to balance that visual perspective with the narrative, never once talking down to the target audience (those aged like Bea), while also appealing to the adults who brought them to the film in the first place. It’s a hard thing to effectively nail as the film can’t cater too much to one without potentially losing the other. Smartly, Krasinski uses Bea as the bridge so that when the attention shifts to the adults (the sequence with her grandmother or Blue’s former kid, played by Bobby Moynihan (Clerks III)), the audience sees these moments through her, making her reaction or response as critical as to the reactions of the other characters in that moment.
L-R: Fiona Shaw (grandmother) and Cailey Fleming (Bea) in Paramount Pictures’ IF. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Of course, Bea’s journey of personal reclamation is born out of learning how to take control of what she can. (In therapy, it would be described as “circle of concern vs. circle of control,” a technique used to approach anxiety and other ailments.) We observe, to a degree, Bea go through the process of losing her mother, someone the montage at the start suggests Bea was very close to. Having the character face this again with her father, having her come back to the place she lived when her mother was also sick, physically puts Bea back where she was while seeking to help her reclaim what was lost the first time. Through her adventure with Cal, Bea gradually realizes that adults are just big kids who may have forgotten their own old friends and, through that, lost a magical part of themselves through the growth of anxiety and more. This is a novel lesson for children (and adults) and it mostly sticks the landing, Bea slowly coming to the conclusion that the IFs around her are directly connected to her and that her ability to see them is because that part of herself who once believed in magic isn’t totally lost. That’s why the Tina Turner sequence lands so hard for some, why seeing the IFs shift from background players stuck in a dreary retirement village to center stage of their own situations results in wonder and awe, and why the story as a whole comes off as a loving tribute to the child in each of us. Interestingly, where this hits most powerfully is in learning about the grandmother’s past as a dancer, the sequence shot like a classic Hollywood movie with the windows of the apartment possessing an obvious back-drop stylized design meant to look New York City, set lights radiating like show lights around Shaw as she danced.
L-R: Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Blossom) and Cailey Fleming (Bea) in Paramount Pictures’ IF. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
IF falters when it sets up questions without answers. I’m not talking about the Bea-Cal situation as the answers are sown into the film very clearly. If you don’t understand their relationship or how the film seeds the revelation throughout the film, you’ll just need to watch the film again. Bea’s ability to see IFs doesn’t mean that she remembers her own and you can tell from the instant that Cal sees Bea that it hurts him, but he’s as resigned to being on his own as the rest, so he doesn’t make a plea. Therefore, Bea’s journey of healing is directly connected to his own (yeah, that part is obvious from the marketing). But what happens to Cal after Bea returns home? The invisible boy Keith (credited as Brad Pitt, likely a joke related to Reynolds via Deadpool 2) does make it home as Dad’s old IF, but where’s Cal? Does Bea no longer need him? Grandmother is reunited with Blossom, Dad with Keith, the man with Blue — why the separation? Perhaps that’s a question for a potential sequel, but it’s not addressed in a satisfying manner here. Why is Alan Kim’s (Minari) Benjamin in the hospital? He’s mostly in the film as a joke, but he’s got serious injuries — what’s his deal? Sure, we last see him recovered at a non-hospital playground with an IF of his own, but why was he there? Given the melancholic tale backstory (albeit brief) he gives to Bea, it seems like he’d already have an IF due to the trauma of his injuries and isolation from his parents. Additionally, the Tina Turner sequence, fun as it is, speaks to Bea’s reclamation of something her mother loved, but, for the audience, it only stems from something we saw once in the montage when we have no real connection to the characters. So much of the film means so much to Bea and so little to us except what we’re told is important, and telling us versus having us feel it are very different. In the rush to get to the silliness, often times the emotions of the film don’t reach the heights the film so clearly tells us it wants us to feel.
Director John Krasinski on the set of Paramount Pictures’ IF. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
As for the bonus features, spread across six featurettes totaling roughly 32 minutes, audiences are invited to learn about everything from the birth of the concept, the casting of the voices, the character design process (with help from the Krasinski girls), the practical elements of the film, to the incorporation of CG to bridge the real with the imaginary. Each one of the main six featurettes focuses on a different element of the production process, offering glimpses of on-set footage and recording booth work, but not a whole lot of pre- or post-production elements for those who want a sense of the development process beyond the act of shooting. For those who wondered why Tina Turner played such a major role in the film beyond Bea’s family’s fandom, Krasinski opens up a bit about the connection to the prolific singer and his family in the featurette “Tina Turner Forever!.” The featurette also shows us how Fleming and Reynolds shot the sequence. For those looking to learn how to draw the character Blue, there’s a six-minute featurette with an adult and child (neither named, oddly) providing a drawing demo. It’s not as detailed as the one included on Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023) or Trolls Band Together (2023), but it provides enough to get started, whatever your drawing level. Lastly, there is a traditional near-four-minute gag reel showing off the on-set mishaps, hijinks, and other silliness that can occur when making a film. There’re no additional, deleted, or extended scenes, so if you had any kind of questions from the film that didn’t feel resolved by its end, there’s nothing within the bonus features to potential answer them.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that nearly the whole of IF left me a bawling mess. The IFs themselves are charming in their construction and Reynolds as Cal is about as you’d expect any Reynolds performance to be of late, but it’s the emotional throughline of the film that got me — the notion that life has a tendency to make us forgot the best parts of ourselves, that there’s no rule that says you must actually put aside childish things when one grows up, that the holding on to our dreams and our ability to play can, in fact, make us stronger. Perhaps it’s the fact that I have two young kids of my own, but I could see them in Bea — one who constantly creates worlds whether through intangible words or constructed on paper or other physical materials; the other “yes, anding” when he joins in — and that made my heart swell. Childhood is a delicate thing from which the seeds of adulthood spring; their caretaking a tremendous responsibility. A film like IF reminds adults of that task while offering hope for themselves (me) at the same time. So, while there are certainly trite elements and unanswered questions that potentially undermine the plot, the film itself is no less entertaining or inspiring.
IF Special Features:
- The Imagination Behind IF — Hear from writer and director John Krasinski plus the cast and crew as they dive deeper into the process of bringing their imagination to life on screen. (5:21)
- Imagining Imaginary Friends — Take a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of each imaginary friend. (5:19)
- Giving IFs a Voice — Meet the all-star cast responsible for voicing each character. Hear from Steve Carrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and more! (5:49)
- Blending The Real and the Imaginary — Join John Krasinski as he incorporates a practical filmmaking approach to make the imaginary feel real. (5:31)
- Tina Turner Forever! — Experience the reimagining of the iconic 80s Tina Turner music video as John Krasinski recreates this legendary sequence with the IFs. (3:32)
- The Imaginative World of IF — From Brooklyn Heights to Coney Island, go behind-the-scenes with the cast and crew and experience the magic of New York City like never before. (6:02)
- Gag Reel — You won’t have to imagine the hilarious antics on set once you check out this gag reel! (3:54)
- Learn to Draw Blue from IF — Learn to draw the loveable and cuddly “Blue” in this fun, interactive tutorial. (6:38)
Available on digital June 18th, 2024.
Available on Paramount+ July 9th, 2024.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD August 13th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Paramount Pictures IF webpage.
Final Score: 3 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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