IF / Imaginary Friends (John Krasinski, 2024)

Ryan Reynolds plays the best kind of friend a grieving girl can have in IF (or Imaginary Friends), the new family film by writer and director John Krasinski.

This fanciful mix of live action and animation tells the story of a young girl called Bea (Cailey Fleming), who suffered the loss of her mother at a young age.

At the start of the movie 12-year old Bea and her father (John Krasinski) have returned to New York. Bea will stay with her Grandmother (Fiona Shaw in a lovely role) in her Brooklyn apartment, while dad is in hospital to undergo some, apparently non-life threatening treatment. 

This triggers all kinds of memories in Bea, who suffers from loneliness as well, and pretty soon she develops a coping mechanism: she begins to see imaginary friends. And not just some, but loads of ‘em. 

Fortunately, upstairs neighbor (and former clown) Cal (Reynolds) is on hand to explain whats going on: Bea is seeing  the imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up. As a result they are now facing extinction. Unless Bea and Cal come up with a plan to reunite them with their former human friends.

It’s a lovely set-up for a potentially lovely movie and if you can stand the overall cuteness, you’re probably in for a treat. 

The movie offers up a mostly seamless blend of live-action and animation, of realistic locations that become settings for magical realism, while the (appropriately colorful) animated characters offer up all sorts of delights (as well as bountiful merchandise opportunities).

There is the giant Blue (Steve Carell), who is actually purple because the kid who imagined him was colorblind. There is the chirpy Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who used to have a connection with Grandmother. And there is Lewis (Louis Gossett Jr.), who set up the retirement home for abandoned IF’s, which is located inside a derelict wonder wheel. That’s were some of the movie’s most magical moments take place.

To add to this there are smaller voice parts for major names like Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Richard Jenkins, Akwafina and Jon Stewart.

The movie is about holding on to childhood memories, while coming to terms with grief and cherishing the power of imagination.

Frankly, it’s so life affirming and heart warming and huggable that at times I wanted to clobber it over the head with a stick. 

I’m not just saying that in jest. At times I found the story both too slow and too sentimental and the pace too plodding, with the dominant musical score doubling down on emotions that are already clearly felt. 

It’s a pity, but there’s is plenty of fun too be had too, with some neat surprises too boot, while the movie’s investment in Bea’s inner life is absolutely genuine. 

Reynolds and Fleming (who is definitely a talent to watch!) work well together, especially in tandem with Carell’s Blue, who is so big he can fill the entire screen, and I do have the feeling that IF has the potential to be a hit with family audiences.

I give it three stars! 

Note: IF / Imaginary Friends is out now in France and The Netherlands (so I rode my bike to the Amsterdam Pathe Arena to see it with a paying audience). It is released in most of the rest of the world next week.