3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): IF

2024, John Krasinski (The Hollars) -- download

I am never one to be bothered by spoilers, to avoid trailers or clips or whatnot. I usually say its because by the time the movie comes along, I will have forgotten anything, but really its just because I cannot be bothered to make any effort to hide myself away. Also, I am on a really big trailer kick right now, and I might go so far as to say I am watching more trailers than I am movies. That is probably because there is less I actually want to see, once having seen the trailer. Anywayz, this movie was served up a great disservice by its trailer, in that I realized a third of the way through the movie, "Wait, they don't expect you to know <the reveal> all along?" Yes, there is something depicted in the movie in the movie that would have been more enjoyable if you had gone in cold, and not expected it.

Side note, from grumpy face here -- Ryan Reynold's so obviously dyed hair and beard are a stark difference from all other images I see of him. This movie did not want him depicted as his actual age. That bugged me.

12 year old Bea (Cailey Fleming, The Walking Dead) moves in with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw, Andor), while her Dad (John Krasinski, The Office) awaits open heart surgery. Through flashbacks we see that Bea lost her mother earlier to Cancer, and Dad has done his best to make sure Bea is good through all this latest challenge, focusing on stories and play, something the family cherished. Bea is reserved but mature acting, a strangely agreeable child. Most kids in movies like this are always pushing up against boundaries in difficult situations, but Bea is more concerned with her Dad feeling better than her own feelings.

And then Bea sees a walking, talking anthropomorphic, anachronistic black & white cartoon. She is accompanied by a an adult man, also dressed rather anachronistically. Bea follows them to a house where the man climbs through a window, and returns with a big, furry, purple monster named Blue. Bea faints. When she wakes, she is in the man's apartment, along with the B&W cartoon Blossom (kind of a butterfly girl; Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Solo: A Star Wars Story), and Blue (Steve Carell, Welcome to Marwen), and she learns that they are Imaginary Friends, and the man is Cal (Ryan Reynolds, Red Notice), a rather fastidious man who is focused on helping forgotten IF's either find new children. Since their now grown children have forgotten them, they will eventually just ... fade away.

So Bea gets it in her mind that she will help Cal find new children for these IFs. Cal shows her to the secret world of IFs where we meet a ton and a half of the very weird, very different ways kids had IFs. Bea is accepting and fits in easily. She gets a dance number. Which is kind of weird unto itself. Why doesn't she freak out? Why is their no commentary on her IF ? Why does she fit so easily into this magical world? I mean, yes, we are shown that because of her Mom & Dad, she lived a very magical life filled with wonder and imagination, but ... still.

Eventually Bea starts realizing its not so much about letting the IFs reconnect with their grown children, or even find new children, but to rekindle that tie they had, that aspect of memory that reminds adults of what was important to them when they were kids, and how the IF was more than a friend, but also a source of strength in tough times. Bea shows them how to revitalize that energy, that glow.

There are a few things going on in the movie. She spends much of the movie running around NYC unattended, but for Cal and his IFs. We don't question it. Nobody seems to question it. Bea is obviously running away from her problems, but its towards such a gleeful, magical world that we don't blame her. And Cal, sure he can see IFs which connects him to childhood more than most, but what else do we know about him? Nothing. Meanwhile, Dad sits in his hospital bed keeping a brave face for Bea, and her in turn keeping a brave face for him. And Cal, who I guess is entirely ineffectual in his plans to find places for his IF friends (dept of redundancy dept), is just dragged along by Bea's enthusiasm.

All this avoidance is to avoid the (!!!) SPOILER (!!!) which wasn't a spoiler for me -- Cal is not a man, he is an IF, and Bea's IF who she has let slip away. Since the trailers made that very obvious, I was confused for much of the movie that we were all playing like we didn't know, and in the not knowing (i.e. Cal is a real man) I was left confused. Kind of creepy, in fact. 

Yes, you are kind of creepy.

For me despite the imaginative depiction of the IFs and all their Special Guest Voices (Lou Gossett Jr, Emily Blunt, George Clooney, Bill Hader, Christopher Meloni, etc.), the movie didn't quite work. Its pretty much a standard-fare Netflix Ryan Reynolds movie, without being from Netflix.  Krasinski had the seed of an idea, and while he nailed the sentimentality, the wonderment, while incredibly well done as vignettes, ended up just tacked on.