IF

IF Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alan Kim, Matt Damon, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolf, Emily Blunt, George Clooney.

Director: John Krasinski

What’s Good: Krasinski weaves quite an emotional tale that will probably make a lot of people cry, and just for that, the film is worth watching.

What’s Bad: The tone of the movie seems to be aimed at kids, but the rest of the movie, its storyline, the acting, and the revelations are so sad and emotional that only adults will relate; it feels like a mismatch.

Loo Break: The film has some sluggish moments towards the second act; that’s the cue for you.

Watch or Not?: While the film is quite interesting in its construction, I would recommend waiting and watching it once it is available on digital.

Language: English

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 104 Minutes.

User Rating:

John Krasinski won people’s hearts with his work in The Office, and his very first movie as a director, The Hollars, showed that he had talent behind the camera, which exploded with A Quiet Place. After following that hit with a sequel, Krasinski has chosen to go for a more personal and dramatic film, IF, a movie that feels quite unique in today’s cinematic landscape. But the big swing might not have hit the mark the way its director wanted.

IF Movie Review: Script Analysis

IF is a very strange movie in the sense that it stands right in the middle of magical realism, and it tries to be a movie for kids at times, but at other points it goes for the very somber and dark themes that only adults will be able to appreciate, it is a strange mixture of tones and in the end, the script feels like it could have been polished a lot more, as there are many threads that simply feel like they are going nowhere, and they are not small things, which make them even more noticeable.

The concept of a child being able to see all these lost imaginary friends and her quest to bring these imaginary friends to their human friends sounds like a great concept on paper, but Krasinski struggles to find the perfect way to execute the concept, and it is only towards the end when things get really emotional, and the mess that came before starts making some sense. Yet, it leaves you feeling like it could have been a lot better with just one or two more drafts.

IF definitely feels like Krasinski watched Inside Out and liked the character of Bing Bong so much that he decided to create an entire film around that concept, and why not? Bing Bong quickly became the most emotional moment of Inside Out and made people cry for the same reasons as here, and the script does that very well, pulling the emotional strings hard towards the end. Unfortunately, it does it so hard and so in your face that the manipulation is obvious, and it took me out of the experience, just like Bing Bong did in Inside Out.

Outside the clear manipulation, the movie has some good moments in parts which make the experience tolerable even when the pacing doesn’t help to keep things moving along, there are also some great voice performances that manage to elevate the entire concept by a lot and become the highlight of the movie.

IF Movie Review: Star Performance

Yes, IF has Ryan Reynolds, who will soon try to save Marvel from oblivion with his Deadpool and Wolverine movie, and it also has an amazing cast of popular stars doing the voices of all the imaginary friends that are introduced in the movie, but the real star of the show is Cailey Fleming, who has been working a lot when it comes to making a name for herself in Hollywood and with this movie she definitely achieves that goal by creating a character that feels quite real amidst the insanity.

Fleming experiences a roller-coaster of emotions, but she never feels out of place or overact, which could have been so easy for someone her age. This proves that she has the chops to become a great actor in the future. Reynolds does his best in a more restrained role than we are used to, and Krasinski also inserts himself into his movie, but his performance feels very forced and doesn’t end up working the way he probably would have wanted to.