To be really honest, I am a little torn-up about what I feel for IF, the John Krasinski written-produced-directed-acted film playing now in cinemas across Pakistan and the world.

For starters, the film carries more than a passing resemblance to a popular Cartoon Network show called Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends — in which a boy finds an orphanage for imaginary friends for his best friend Bloo, a mischievous blue-coloured figment of his imagination.

In IF (short for Imaginary Friends), 12-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) finds out that her neighbour Cal (Ryan Reynolds) finds new kids for abandoned imaginary friends after their creators/owners have grown up. Eventually, she finds herself at a retirement home where old IFs live.

The main IF in the film is a purple furry monster, who goes by the name of Blue (voiced by Steve Carrell). The film states that the boy who conjured Blue was colour-blind, hence he could not see the difference between blue and purple; I think the colour difference saves the makers from a court case, given the similarities with the cartoon show.

Despite being a film for children, IF is really about adults, even though they are side characters

My second point against the film is the level-headedness of its sincerity. Despite being a film for children — and it really is that, on the surface — IF is really about adults, even though adults are side characters.

In the masterfully done opening montage, we see Bea as a child with two loving parents, though soon the mom appears with a headscarf, signalling that she is undergoing treatment for cancer. At the end of the montage, we find that Bea has now shifted to New York to live with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw), while her dad (Krasinski), also in a hospital in the city, readies for a critical heart surgery.

Despite the illness, dad is fun, if for the sake of his daughter — although I doubt it. In his first entry outside of the montage, he dances around with a drip set that’s hung on a stand, for the amusement of his daughter.

In a later scene, Bea finds blankets tied together in the form of an escape rope that goes from the bed to the window, and a note that tells her that he has escaped from the hospital. Unfazed by his childish shenanigans, Bea opens a cabinet to find dad there, and tells him to quit his tomfoolery — he says never.

Previously, she had told him that life doesn’t always have to be fun. By the end of the film, but of course, the 12-year-old gives in to her inner child.

Despite the razzle dazzle of animation, primarily at the retirement home of the IFs that are sprung alive by Bea’s sense of belief, there is little actual charm or sense of imagination in IF. The film has few subplots and fewer plot-points, and scenes made with a strong, purposeful tilt towards sensitivity feel a little long-winded.

Even with Ryan Reynolds’ charm, the film feels like a story for adults to discover their inner child. Some mischief-making and a little more cute would have made the imagination in IF reallycome alive.

Starring the voices of Steve Carell, Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Maya Rudolph, Emily Blunt, Sam Rockwell and the late Louis Gosset Jr, and released by HKC and Universal, IF is rated U — any other certificate would have done the film a major disservice

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 26th, 2024