IF: Imaginary Friends – Review, the importance of becoming a child again

For a few years now we have been experiencing the transition from actor to director John Krasinskicertainly known to most for his role as Jim Halpert in the sitcom The Office. After his first two very experimental but still successful films, he has certainly become much more popular with the public as the author of the horror series A Quiet Place, which allowed him to achieve well-deserved success also as a director and screenwriter. With IF – Imaginary friendsinstead, Krasinski decides to make a kind of U-turn, creating a delightful and entertaining family film which we will talk about extensively in our review.

The importance of becoming small again

With this mixed media film that combines animation with live action, the viewer is catapulted into the life of the young Bea (played by Cailey Fleming), a girl forced to leave her childhood behind too early with the power to succeed see The “IF”that is, the people’s imaginary friends (English acronym Imaginary Friend).

Helped by her grandmother’s eccentric neighbor, Calplayed by the equally eccentric Ryan Reynoldswill have to try to help all these imaginary creatures return to their friends… even the ones who have grown too much.

With IF – Imaginary Friends, John Krasinski wants to talk much more to parents who take their children to the cinemamasking this message within an absolutely well-made family film and certainly above the average of those seen in recent years.

IF is almost a hymn to not having to by force grow too fast, and not leaving childhood behind. With this latest work, John Krasinski wants to push spectators both large and small to appreciate this precise period of life, and invites them to come back whenever neededwithout being afraid of it or even rejecting it, whether to escape from the boredom of adult life, or to empathize more with your childrengrandchildren or younger siblings. As the director himself says in an interview with Focus:

In my opinion it is wrong to abandon childhood: but IF – Imaginary Friends shows you that there is no need to abandon your child self to grow up: he follows you wherever you go, you just have to turn and look, and he is always there to you, he helps you especially in difficulties. I hope it is clear to both teenagers and adults that you are never too old to continue being a child.

All this is accompanied among other things by the wonderful soundtrack composed by the grandiose Michael Giacchinowhich gives that fairytale tone to the whole film and it frames the most important moments perfectly of the entire feature film. One of the key scenes of the film, which obviously we won’t spoil, let’s just say that it has to do with classical music, and it becomes so above all thanks to to the sound arrangement and the splendid play of light created by the director of photography Janusz Kamiński.

Despite the nature of a family film, Krasinski and Kamiński play a lot with both writing and staging, creating a very personal narrative. Unfortunately, a somewhat weak central part does not allow the film to remain 100% engaging, but in the third act all this is resolved, with also some twists – although quite predictable – which will amaze you.

In this review of IF – Imaginary Friends we also want to give a little praise to the direction of John Krasinski, who turns out to be a very eclectic director who manages to range across genres very easilygiving us a direction that – although not particularly excellent – still remains appreciable and noteworthy, especially with regards to the work done with the actors, but above all with the voice actors.

The “voice” of imaginary friends

The real peculiarity of this film, in fact, is the incredible amount of voice actors used to dub the large number of imaginary friends present in the film: from the most present roles such as that of Steve Carell who gives his voice to Blue, the gigantic purple monster present in all the posters; or Phoebe Waller-Bridges what a double Blossoma little bee openly inspired by Betty Boop.

The two of them together with the recently deceased Louis Gossett Jr. in the brief but intense role of Lewis the bear, they did a great job with their performance, making their fictional counterparts even more iconic.

Among the others guest stars who made a cameo giving their voice to the many imaginary friends we also find Emily Blunt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Blake Lively, Awkwafina and many others that we will let you discover by watching the film!

The same thing unfortunately however, this cannot be said of their Italian counterparts. The interpretations of Ciro Priellomain face of The Jackal, and the actress Pilar Fogliati – although noteworthy, as they are not professional voice actors – they do not convey the same power and charisma as their original counterparts. Despite this, however, IF – Imaginary Friends remains a more than enjoyable film even dubbed into Italian.

In short, John Krasinski turns out to be a very flexible directorwho from one film to another manages to jump from one genre to a completely opposite one, putting himself to the test and this time creating a Absolutely enjoyable family filmwhich will make both the little ones and their companions laugh and move.