Movie review: ‘YES’ | MovieFone

On May 17, ‘IF’, directed by John Krasinski and starring Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, George Clooney, will be released in theaters. Awkwafina and Steve Carell.

Initial thoughts

After spending most of the last decade following the end of ‘The Office’ in “tough guy” mode, playing a soldier, a spy and an alpha male patriarch (perhaps to distance himself from his nerdy image as Jim Halpert) , John Krasinski moves into family movie mode with ‘IF,’ an original live-action film that he wrote, directed and co-stars in. But while Krasinski showed some filmmaking talent with the intense ‘A Quiet Place’ and its sequel, his heavy-handed attempt at a potential family classic is overwrought and underwritten, giving the usually charismatic Ryan Reynolds and the young and Brave star Cailey Fleming has little to do but watch some Pixar-style CG creations.

History and direction

‘IF’ begins with Bea (Fleming), a young woman who loses her mother to cancer before the opening credits end. But that’s not all: Bea’s father (Krasinski) suffers from heart disease and requires surgery, forcing Bea to stay at her grandmother’s (Fiona Shaw) apartment in New York while her father undergoes his procedure ( your preoperative stay in the hospital). is incredibly long: whatever she does for a living, she must have great insurance).

Lonely but apparently out of school, Bea spies on some strange-looking characters around the apartment building who lead her to an apartment upstairs. That’s where she meets Cal (Reynolds), a man strangely out of time who resides in the whimsical apartment with a whole horde of strange beings that only Bea and Cal can see. As Cal explains, these are imaginary friends, or IFs for short, looking for new children to bond with since their previous children have grown up and forgotten about them.

Cal takes Bea to Coney Island (apparently it’s perfectly fine for a 12-year-old to wander around town as she sees fit), where he introduces her to an underground retirement home for a large IF contingent, like a robot, a marshmallow in flames, a glass of water, a big purple ball of fur that looks like it came out of ‘Monsters University’ and many more. Most of them are voiced by famous people like Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Awkwafina, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart and Blake Lively, who don’t get much more than one or two lines (even the ones married to the director and/or male protagonist). The founder of the place, a teddy bear named Lewis (the late Louis Gossett Jr.), recruits Bea to help Cal find new children for the rebel IF, which Bea apparently considers more worth her time than, say, stay with his father. side.

‘IF’ really wants to be a kind of live-action Pixar movie. While the idea of ​​holding on to the power of your imagination even as an adult is valuable, and we’ll give Krasinski some respect for taking a big, original turn with his own material, he’s not a good enough writer to make It Works, and I can’t either. understand it as a director. The film continually attempts to shamelessly and relentlessly tug at one’s heartstrings, aided so intrusively by Michael Giacchino’s omnipresent, syrupy score (a rare failing from the otherwise great composer) that one wants to tell the music to shut up.

The biggest problem with ‘IF’, beyond its overt sensitivity, is that Krasinski’s world-building is sloppy and undercooked. Does Bea’s grandmother wonder where she goes all the time? Her father? Why can some people suddenly see her FI for no apparent reason years after they’ve forgotten about it? How can IFs apparently open doors and move objects? Sure, this is a fantasy movie and real-life logic doesn’t always apply; but there has to be some kind of internal logic, a set of rules for the world, and that doesn’t seem to be present here.

There are some funny lines throughout the movie, and young children may delight in some of the many IFs that populate the story (even if none of them are given anything more than a cursory sketch of the character), but ‘IF ‘ meanders along with little urgency and no real sense of what we’re supposed to feel, despite its strenuous attempts to make us feel something.

John Krasinski Cast Many Best Friends For ‘IF’

‘IF’ has a stacked voice cast, although as mentioned above, IFs appear so frequently that few get a chance to make any kind of impression. Aside from the kind and wise Lewis, the IFs who get the most screen time are Steve Carell’s Blue and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Blossom, a sort of 1920s ballerina who turns out to be Bea’s grandmother’s IF.

The main human character, Cailey Fleming’s Bea, starts out serious and intelligent, but begins to become overly emotional during the second half of the film; Fleming remains an engaging presence who can probably do better. Krasinski’s father, a capricious guy who implores his daughter not to grow up too quickly, is too cocky to earn much of our empathy, while the usually brilliant Reynolds is forced to act somewhat taciturn and passive. during large sections of the film. His facility with one-liners doesn’t get the training this movie could use. ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ can’t come soon enough.

Final thoughts

There’s a 10-minute tour of the IF retirement home about half an hour into the movie, in which Lewis tells Bea that she can make anything she wants happen just by thinking about it (we assume). It’s a potentially interesting idea ruined by overly frenetic and busy visuals, ending in a strange dance number that has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the plot. It’s also indicative of the problem with the rest of ‘IF’: it’s a shapeless film that feels more like the director is playing with all the tools at his disposal but not solidifying the story he wants to tell.

After the success of the ‘A Quiet Place’ films, we guess it was inevitable that the director would indulge in a vanity project. And as noted above, some younger audience members may be captivated by everything that happens in the film. But if John Krasinski wants to try his hand at a family film again, he should focus more on a good, focused story and characters, and less on self-satisfied sentimentality.

‘IF’ receives 4 out of 10 stars.

What is the plot of ‘SI’?

A young woman going through a very difficult time in her life suddenly gains the ability to see the imaginary friends (IF) of other people who have left her behind. With the help of a neighbor, the girl tries to reunite all the IFs with the children she once belonged to.

Who is part of the cast of ‘SI’?

• Cailey Fleming as Bea
• Ryan Reynolds as Cal
• John Krasinski as Bea’s father
• Fiona Shaw as Bea’s grandmother
• Steve Carell as Blue (voice)
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Blossom (voice)
• Louis Gossett Jr. as Lewis (voice)
• Emily Blunt as Unicorn (voice)
• Matt Damon as Sunny (voice)
• Sam Rockwell as watchdog (voice)
• Awkwafina as Bubble (voice)
• Blake Lively as Octopuss (voice)
• George Clooney as astronaut (voice)
• Bradley Cooper as Ice (voice)
• Brad Pitt as Keith (voice)

(L-R) Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming star in Paramount Pictures’ “IF.”

Other films directed by John Krasinski:

Buy tickets: ‘IF’ movie schedules

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