‘IF’ Review – John Krasinski Imagines an Earnest Comedy With a Huge Heart

Even though he’s probably best known for playing the extremely sarcastic Jim Halpert on The Office, John Krasinski is almost always at his best when he’s earnest, with his heart on his sleeve. Some of Jim’s best moments came from him not slyly looking at the camera, but rather, sincerely asking Pam out on a date, or giving a tear-filled goodbye to Michael Scott. As a creator, this has also been true, be it through the way the family interacts with each other in A Quiet Place, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, or in his web series Some Good News, which helped give audiences a respite during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, earnest is a good look for Krasinski.

Yet we’ve never seen Krasinski lean so hard into this as he does with his latest film as writer and director, IF. By far the most kid-centered work by Krasinski as a filmmaker, IF has a massive amount of heart that it wears on its sleeve, while also not shying away from the darker moments that are bound to come with life. If anything, IF shares more of its DNA with Pixar’s Up than with anything else Krasinski has made before, finding a smart balance between the melancholy of life and its inherent beauty. Krasinski has created a film that essentially feels like the equivalent of receiving a warm hug while crying, a genuinely sweet movie without a shred of irony that is a pleasant summer movie surprise.

What Is ‘IF’ About?

IF begins by showing us a mostly silent recording of a happy family who is eventually forced to reckon with cancer. Much like Up (especially considering this film has a whimsical yet devastating score by Michael Giacchino), we learn everything we need to know about this family via these old video clips. Cut to the present day, and the little girl in the videos, Bea (Cailey Fleming) is moving into the New York City apartment of her grandmother (Fiona Shaw). While Bea lost her mother to cancer, her father (Krasinski) is undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital for his heart. When they’re together, the hospital can’t help but remind Bea and her father of their mother, so her dad attempts to cheer things up at any opportunity, whether it’s by dancing with his IV drip or pretending to have tied a bunch of blankets together to escape out the hospital window. While her father has tried to stay playful and optimistic, Bea leans towards trying to be a mature 12-year-old.

That is, until she learns she can see imaginary friends. After running into Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who looks like a human butterfly straight from a Betty Boop cartoon, Bea discovers that she shares this ability with her downstairs neighbor, Cal (Ryan Reynolds). Cal’s gotten sick of trying to help these IFs (short for “imaginary friends”) try to find new kids, but Bea is determined to help these creatures reunite with their former kids, who have forgotten how to see these IFs. Together, Bea and Cal attempt to bring these pairs together, a necessary distraction for Bea in this difficult time in her life.

‘IF’ Isn’t Afraid to Embrace Melancholy

At one point in IF, Bea states that “sometimes life doesn’t have to be fun,” and to some extent, Krasinski makes that a theme within the film. His screenplay never undercuts the pain that exists in life, and quite a bit of this film focuses on loss, not only with Bea having lost her mom to cancer, but in how these IFs are desperate to find someone to spend their time with again. Krasinski finds a smart mixture of the fanciful, quirky nature of this story with very real sadness. For example, Cal takes Bea to the place where all the “retired” IFs stay. While it seems delightful, as they live inside the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island, the reality is that their residence is basically a dingy nursing home. However, it only takes a quick hit of Bea’s imagination to transform these depressing quarters into something lively and full of spirit. From Krasinski’s father figure to the core function of the IFs, the film is decidedly about the stories we tell ourselves to get through the day, where the slightest amount of support and kindness can make the daily tribulations just a bit more manageable.

Krasinski has enlisted a great collection of IFs to follow Cal and Bea around on their adventure to lighten the mood. In addition to Blossom, we mostly spend time with Blue (voiced by Michael Scott himself, Steve Carell) a giant purple creature that almost looks like a fuzzier Grimace. Also key to the story is Lewis (voiced by the late great Louis Gossett Jr.), a teddy bear who has seemingly been separated from his kid for longer than the other IFs. The IFs are always charming, as we meet Robot (Jon Stewart), a flying superhero dog (Sam Rockwell), Spaceman (George Clooney), an IF that’s just a piece of ice in a water glass (Bradley Cooper), and an intense noir-esque detective known as Cosmo (Christopher Meloni). Each IF feels like it was created from the mind of another kid, some abstract and strange, others more traditional, to create a cast of intriguing secondary characters.

Yet for all its adorable characters, IF at times certainly feels like it was made more for adults than kids. Considering the lows that IF explores, the humor often doesn’t hit the highs that it needs to balance this story out. Again, most of the humor understandably relies on these IFs, who are frequently funny, but considering the darker angles that Krasinski wants to dive into, it’s as though the balance is somewhat off.

Because of this skewed balance, IF has some awkward moments. This often comes through in the performances, such as with Krasinski’s overly-optimistic and playful father, who is almost too quirky for his own good, or with Fleming’s Bea, who occasionally shifts from being wildly independent from everyone else to acting much younger than her age. This is all in service of the story that Krasinski is telling, but it still makes the dynamics of the film feel like something is wrong. For all its charms, IF can sometimes not be as funny as it needs to be, given the seriousness of the situation, or almost too dark for what we expect from a kid’s film. For example, as we learn about Bea and her family’s situation, IF begins with a long period where there’s little-to-no humor. The balance certainly gets better over time, but jumping into this story with a mostly sorrowful air to it is a bit of an odd place to start with this film.

‘IF’ Captures the Beauty of Life’s Simple Joys

Still, some of the best moments in IF come from embracing that mixture of joy among the sorrow, which is particularly the case in the truly beautiful moments this film captures in the third act. Once this world is established and we know these characters, IF becomes truly powerful in trying to get these IFs reunited with their former owners. These aren’t grand gestures that the film is trying to capture, instead, showing the small support that we all need. The way Krasinski films these scenes, along with two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kamiński and Giacchino’s sweeping score, he’s able to capture the beauty in the simple joys of life, and the small moments that can make all the difference. Even just being told that things are going to be okay can make a massive impact, and it’s wonderful that Krasinski can capture that in the film’s third act.

These themes are also largely brought out through this cast, particularly Fleming. Bea is an interesting character to have in a film ostensibly for kids, as she contains a whole myriad of emotions and feelings. Somedays, she’s overjoyed by her goal of helping these IFs, while other days, she wants to be taken as more serious and not as a kid. It’s not inconsistency on the part of Fleming’s performance or Krasinski’s script, but instead, showing the multitude of emotions kids can feel that need support. Fleming does an excellent job at leading this story and always does so by feeling like a real kid.

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Reynolds also gives a surprising reined-in performance for him, as the man who has been exhausted by helping all these IFs over the years. Through Reynolds, we see someone who has become beaten down by his world, where reminders of the joy he once had can elicit the smallest of smiles. Reynolds is making some especially subtle choices here, and this is absolutely a performance that will have even more resonance on a rewatch.

Between his collaboration with Kamiński and his blending of the darkness of life with the powerful moments that make life worth living, Krasinski has essentially made his own attempt at a Steven Spielberg film, and it’s a tone that works for him. While IF might not be as funny as one would expect, and it’s a little uneven in places, the emotions and ideas that he’s presenting throughout rise to the top, sanding off any of the film’s rough edges. Especially when the film gets going in its tremendous third act, complete with a moving surprise that reconfigures the entire film, IF becomes a magnificently emotional experience, cathartic and enchanting in equal measure, and just the type of original idea we need more of on this scale at the movies.

REVIEW

IF

IF, from writer-director John Krasinski, is an emotional, big-hearted film that doesn’t shy away from darker moments.

Pros

• Krasinski thrives by leaning into the sincerity and emotional aspects of this story.
• The imaginary friends themselves are a delight, each one unique in their own way.
• The third act is full of powerful moments that will stick with you long after the movie is over.

Cons

• IF could use more comedy to balance out the film’s darker moments.
• Some scenes feel like they could’ve used another pass to sand out the rough spots.

IF is now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

WATCH ON VOD