“IF” (2024)
A Review by Victor DeBonis
This is a movie I truly want to work on an overall level. I tried my best to enjoy it more, and there are certainly good qualities about it. Sadly, though, it’s an ambitiously made film as written and directed by John Krasinksi who directed the chilling 2018 film “A Quiet Place” but can’t quite make the real magic he’s trying to bring here shine as a whole.
The main leads, Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming, provide what they can from their talent to try to help this story to be sure. Reynolds obviously works as a bitter yet lovable guy who is great at gritting his teeth with frustration but never to a point to where he seems as though he doesn’t want to assist the creatures around him. Young Fleming is wonderful and conveys a playfulness and convincing maturity for someone at her character’s age. There are a handful of scenes in which she has to reveal a hurt to moments requiring them, and her tears and struggling tone are demonstrated believably. She would fit like a shoe in a Spielberg family film, and I’m eager to see her show more of her talent in future projects.
The computer animation bringing the imaginative figures to life works well enough. One scene involves a detective friend clutching tightly to Reynolds, and I was stunned as I pondered about what it must have taken to get the human’s reaction down and the visual appearance and movement of the fictional character nailed. Small details, such as the scraggly strands of fur on an elderly bear friend or the thick layers of fur on Steve Carell’s purple character, are neat to see and add more character. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Meloni express a delightful cartoonishness and eagerness to their digital counterparts. If I were still a child, I’d love to concoct stories or adventures with one of these oddballs.
This movie has the beginning of a good idea in which the leads are interviewing these imaginary souls to determine who they would best fit with. The superhero dog and the unicorn and the like mention where they used to live, what the fondest memory was of their child, when was the point in which they lost contact with their child.
Part of this movie’s troubles come from too many characters and great actors fighting for their voice to be heard. A movie with multiple characters, such as “Across the Spiderverse” works because even the characters who don’t get as much screen time as others have the reactions or lines that are clever or funny as they are and leave us with satisfaction from getting the time we did with them. Most of these imaginary beings are amusing to look at but don’t have much to their character outside of a rushed line quickly addressing what they look like before the plot rushes onwards without doing anything to explore more of what they’re like or what the adult may have gone through as a kid to make us want to care about them some more. In addition, Waller and Meloni get a couple of chuckles, but I just didn’t find myself laughing much in the parts in which I should have been.
Michael Giacchino is a remarkable, musical talent who has made countless scores to movies that I love, from “The Incredibles” to “War for the Planet of the Apes” to “The Batman” and others. Here, his music sounds too overly whimsical and is trying too hard to make the audience feel the heavy emotions that the story is yearning for them to feel.
Speaking of which, the biggest element going against the movie is probably the lack of depth and greater sense of heart to the story. Fleming’s backstory for her imaginative mindset and soul is warmly illustrated with camcorder-recorded images pointing to her past in which she was a vibrant, imaginative soul and used her abilities from her creative mind to lift her dying family’s spirits. Growing up as someone who loved making stories and sometimes mentally enacted out situations or tales from my own mind and as someone who is a writer, I found these parts moving and even saw a hint of myself as a kid in these parts of the movie. The problem is that these moments in which Fleming’s character is dealing with her grief or confronting the sad situation of her family are far too distant from one another. I applaud this story’s valiant effort to want to connect to those trying to keep innocence and one’s “inner kid” alive through the hardship of the world.
In a world that seems to get increasingly harder with every moment that passes by, I will always be on the frontline of people begging for more good stories dealing with facing the loss of one’s innocence or happier values and the attempt to recover them or, at least, cope from it.
A sad truth is, though, that the movie spends so much time focusing on Fleming and Reynolds trying to get imaginative friends to reconnect with humans that it doesn’t take any moments to slow down and let the former character discuss the hard emotions that she’s going through from her grief or present situation. In my eyes, this was a greatly missed opportunity. On top of that, there are times in which it’s implied that the girl character might go through harder times ahead, but the story doesn’t commit to the moments. I never felt much being at stake for her or the fantastical characters surrounding her.
Many fantastical sequences depicting the girl trying to reconnect with her imaginative side are admirably concocted for the screen in occasional longer takes. Sometimes, they’re fun and provide brief glimpses of the optimism and playfulness of being an imaginative kid. Yet, there’s no sincere exploration of the feelings that the girl or her severely ill Dad are going through in between to link the attempts at magic to the hardship of the reality.
It’s fine to have a film that’s more visual wonder than substance, but it’s not a good idea to start it off with the false offer that tougher topics are going to receive greater on-screen time as the plot wanders on.
On the topic of human characters interacting with each other, I wasn’t invested in the connection between the kid character and Reynolds. Getting these fantastical beings to reconnect with humans is supposed to be a top priority, but they barely look each other in the eye or have any humorous or creative discussions with each other about the best way to go about doing it. There is very little chemistry between them.
As I’m writing this, I think this movie reminds me a little bit of the 1992 film “Toys.” That was also a film with some neat ideas and undeniable ambition put into its visuals and the sense of childlike wonder it is trying to convey along with a gifted comic actor. The trouble is, that, not unlike “If” the movie didn’t have a solid enough story or intriguing enough characters to earn my investment. Yet, to the credit of “Toys” I still don’t think it works, overall, but it, at least, earns a few more points of interest from me for its sheer off-the-wall weirdness, and it never really tried to say anything deeper in the first place.
Again, I sincerely wanted to recommend this movie, especially in a day and age in which past IP’s are not earning much and original stories from artists who take big swings are fighting harder to see the light and gain better appreciation.
At the time of this review, “Megalopolis” is being presented at film festivals and getting the most intriguing and divisive feedback I’m seen in a while. Yet, I am pleading for some American film company to be daring enough to distribute it to the United States not only because it’s a huge passion project that one of my favorite filmmakers and cinematic heroes has poured years and years of time, thought, and money into but because it’s completely original and is not another unnecessary remake or comic book film.
In a similar way, Krasinski clearly worked his rear off to get this original movie of his into the spotlight and as much attention as it could garner. Behind-the-scenes videos of the making of this film have been shared as far back as December when the teaser trailer was first released.
I applaud the daring presence of “If” and the ideas trying to get off the ground from the story, but the depth and the heart of the story didn’t quite match up in reality as it might in the imagination.
Grade: C-