If this were all that “IF” had to offer for the story, it would make for a solid, delightfuly movie utilizing an amusing array of unique and silly imaginary friends, including a wonderfully giddy unicorn (Emily Blunt), an emotional glob of green slime (Keegan-Michael Key), a Shakespearean sheet ghost (Matthew Rhys), a superhero dog (Sam Rockwell), or an amorphous black shape with a pair of eyes peeking out of a trenchcoat and fedora like some kind of cartoon detective (Christopher Meloni). Those are just some of the IFs, while others allow for star-studded cameos from the likes of Maya Rudolph, Bradley Cooper, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart, Richard Jenkins, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Awkwafina, Blake Lively, and even the late Louis Gossett Jr. as a warm, thoughtful teddy bear wearing slacks, a polo, and a hat.
As Bea is introduced to this assembly of imaginary friends, we get a dazzling “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” VFX display of IFs as she lets her own imagination run a little wild, making the IF retirement home feel less like a depressing hospital and more like a funhouse. While meeting the various IFs is fairly entertaining, even as many of the big stars don’t really get standout moments worthy of their time, the more disappointing issue is that the movie isn’t consistently or frequently as funny as the marketing would have you believe. Even the reliable Ryan Reynolds doesn’t bring any major laughs outside of the audition-esque line-up of IFs. A repeated pratfall over an invisible IF named Keith gets tired quickly, and Reynolds’ character is more exhausted at every turn rather than getting an opportunity to be hilarious. In fact, most of the funniest parts are in the trailer.
What’s not in the trailer is the much more serious side of the story, which finds Bea coming to terms with her own grief. Even Bea’s attempts to help imaginary friends reconnect with their kids yields more somber results than you might anticipate, at least at first. This is the movie’s biggest shortcoming, as Krasinski has a hard time balancing the lighter, sillier side of entering the world of IFs with the emotional core that starts to dominate the movie, making it feel less like a fun family movie and more like a joyless therapy session. As the story unfolds, there are a handful of mysterious and uncertainties that will either have you easily predicting a key development from the film’s third act or merely wondering just where all of this is heading, especially when Bea’s hopes of helping all these imaginary friends start to feel hopeless and the most engaging part of the story runs out of steam. Not even Steve Carell’s toothy monster with endless exuberance can keep sadness from creeping in.
