Becoming The Muse

If Movie Review

IF is a 2024 American live-action animated fantasy comedy film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski. The movie was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on 17 May, 2024 and released to digital and video-on-demand platforms on 19 June 2024.

The premise of the story follows a young girl dealing with a father’s illness after the loss of a mother, who finds comfort and friendship with a group of imaginary friends whose companions have outgrown them.

The Good

The movie opens with the Paramount logo reimagined as a child’s sketch heralding a whimsical journey into saturated visuals that are reminiscent of the simpler era before smart phones commanded a large chunk of our attention and we put down our childhood toys forever…

The cinematography is well put together merging live-action with CGI graphics that bring to life fascinating characters that leaves one wondering what kind of mind would imagine an Imaginary Friend of the sort….

In the African context any person; child or adult, who claims to have such “friends” would raise eyebrows and have whispered conversations of intervention to free them from the supernatural clutches of witchraft… Imaginary Friend!?

Its not a spoiler to point out that the IF in the movie title stands for Imaginary Friend and also a play on the possibilities creativity and imagination can create… If…

If movie has a star-studded cast some who make cameo appearances as voice actors that will have you looking up the casting of the movie when you run into a familiar celebrity voice in a line up that includes Emily Blunt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and the late Louis Gossett Jr.

Louis Gossett Jr. in on of his last roles gives a poignant and touching performance as Lewis the bear who despite not being a central character, comes across as the beating heart of the production with a dedication at the end of the credits.

Ryan Reynolds stars in this movie playing a character that isn’t too far from his usual flippant style, being a sort of fun uncle who will be late to the party because he didn’t want to come and puts in just enough effort to still be charming.

The movie presents an imaginative premise, revolving around the exploration of a child’s imagination in a concept which is whimsical and thought-provoking, appealing to both children and adults.

At its core the movie is a family oriented movie about remembering the child within.

"…..The most important stories we have to tell, are the ones we tell ourselves."

The Bad

The movie walks between a fine line of trying appeal to grown-ups as well as the kids and sometimes fumbles the mission when its not funny for kids and yet lacks depth to engage the adult.

For a movie that’s supposed to be family comedy, it has some heavy themes of loss and illness. A child whose lost a mother afraid of losing a father. Since the movie went down that route they could have spent a bit more plot time in showing how to deal with such trauma, than simply breezing past it.

I would say the movie’s target audience should be girl dads and uncles with nieces… and with that in mind the father – daughter dynamic could have been better explored, we never get to connect with the father who is about to get some major surgery  for some undisclosed condition which is jokingly described as a broken heart and he basically spends his time in a private hospital ward, being goofy…

The Ugly

As a family focused movie, I found some of the creative direction questionable…. Like having a 12 year old spending a disturbing amount of time with a stranger following them around unsupervised, not to mention stalking them in the middle of the night and watching them breaking and entering into another child’s bedroom window… maybe I have grown conservative with age but that bit didn’t sit well with me.

Final Thoughts

IF is a fun heartwarming movie one can watch with whole family about family and imagination… Its not particularly memorable but some of the characters seem like they were made ready to merchandise…

Fun Fact: Brad Pitt is credited as being in the movie as Keith an invisible imaginary friend without any dialogue lines…. Wait what? Yep!