Director/Screenplay – John Krasinski, Producers – Andrew Form, John Krasinski, Ryan Reynolds & Allyson Seeger, Photography – Janusz Kaminski, Music – Michael Giacchino, Visual Effects Supervisor – Chris Lawrence, Animation Supervisor – Arslan Elver, Visual Effects/Animation –Framestore (Supervisors – Oli Armstrong & Benjamin Magana, Animation Supervisors – Marc-Andre Baron, James King & Mariano Mendiburu), Visual Effects – Cadence Effects (Supervisor – Craig Crawford), Special Effects Supervisor – Conrad Brink, Production Design – Jess Gonchor. Production Company – Sunday Night/Maximum Effort Productions.
Cast
Cailey Fleming (Bea), Ryan Reynolds (Cal), John Krasinski (Dad), Fiona Shaw (Grandmother), Alan Kim (Benjamin), Lisa Colon-Zayas (Janet), Bobby Moynihan (Jeremy)
Voices
Steve Carell (Blue), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Blossom), Louis Gossett Jr. (Lewis), Awwafina (Bubble), Emily Blunt (Unicorn), George Clooney (Spaceman), Bradley Cooper (Ice), Matt Damon (Flower), Bill Hader (Banana), Richard Jenkins (Art Teacher), Keegan-Michael Key (Slime), John Krasinski (Marshmallow), Blake Lively (Octopuss)
Plot
In New York City, twelve year-old Bea is left in the company of her grandmother while her father has to go into hospital for surgery. Bea sees a strange creature going into the apartment upstairs. Later she is witness as a man sneaks into an apartment across the street and, as she watches, retrieves a giant furry purple creature. She faints and is brought around in the upstairs apartment where she meets Blue, the purple creature, the insect-like Blossom and Cal, the human that tends them. The creatures explain that they are IFs (Imaginary Friends) who have become abandoned after their child grew up and forgot about them. Bea decides she is going to join Cal and take on the job of locating a new child for the IFs to belong to.
The idea of the Imaginary Companions has been with us since the 1930s and films like Topper (1937) and sequels and The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947). The classic work among these was Harvey (1950) with James Stewart insistent on the existence of an invisible six foot tall rabbit. (We even see Harvey playing on the tv in the background here during a couple of scenes). A subdivision of these has become films about childhood imaginary companions as with the likes of Drop Dead Fred (1991), Bogus (1996), Imagine That (2009), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020). There has also been a branch of these dealing with childhood imaginary companions turned sinister as with the likes of Benny Loves You (2019), Daniel Isn’t Real (2019), Imaginary (2024) and the thorough dementia that was the tv series Happy! (2017-9). (For a more detailed listing see Invisible and Imaginary Companions).
I admit to having my doubts about the idea of Ryan Reynolds doing a family-friendly film about imaginary companions. Reynolds has four kids, the oldest born in 2014. Along with the upcoming Animal Friends (2025), which also has animated characters interacting with live-action figures, it feels in many ways like Reynolds is entering his Robin Williams phase – the point in the 1990s where Williams started taking on animation and family-friendly films to please his kids. On the other hand, as the credits rolled, I did notice that the film was directed by John Krasinski. I had been very impressed with Krasinski’s third film A Quiet Place (2018), less so with its sequel A Quiet Place Part II (2020).
The title did briefly leave me with the idea that we might be in for a remake of the splendidly anarchic If … (1968) with Malcolm McDowell defying the cruelty of the British boarding school system and starting an armed rebellion. (My mind briefly created a bizarre mash-up with Reynolds accompanied by a giant purple plushy creature on a shooting rampage to bring down the British boarding school tradition).
Bea (Cailey Fleming) and Blue (voiced by Steve Carell)
In short time, IF ends up being a huge amount of unpretentious fun. The early scenes have John Krasinski in the role of Cailey Fleming’s father where he goes all out in a determination to prove himself the world’s most fun dad, which has its amusements. However, the real fun begins with the introduction of the animated characters in particular the giant-sized purple plushy known as Blue (voiced by Steve Carell). Blue even succeeds in stealing the show away from a naturally live-wire presence like Ryan Reynolds (who proves uncommonly subdued despite having produced the film himself). Cailey Fleming, only a couple of years earlier the cowboy-hatted, gun-toting grown-up Judith in tv’s The Walking Dead (2010-22), maintains an admirably serious face right throughout.
Krasinski calls IF “a live-action Pixar film,” which hits it on the nose in many ways – Blue is really a variant on Sulley in Monsters, Inc. (2001). Once he introduces the IFs, they largely take over the film. Krasinski does get carried away from time to time – letting the retirement home scenes break out into song-and-dance numbers as Cailey Fleming is told she can reimagine the place. However, the latter third of the film, where Cailey and Ryan set out to reunite the IFs with their now grown owners has an endearing, heart-tugging charm that wins the film over.
