Movie Review: IF

 

When I walked into an early afternoon screening of John Krasinski's new family comedy IF on Saturday, I didn't anticipate that I was going to see a movie that I really needed to see at this moment of my life. As I've entered my 30's, I've become kind of alarmed at how stagnant my life has become.  Accepting the cruel, joyless nature of the world is something that I've long come to terms with, but the soul-sucking tedium of day-to-day existence is something that has really caught me off guard. While IF doesn't deliver some kind of delusional sermon about how life is actually great if you just smile and laugh through the malaise of it all, it does preach the importance of letting some light in whenever possible. It was comforting to watch a movie aimed at kids that didn't pretend everything was great while also trafficking in a pragmatic form of levelheaded positivity that feels pretty foreign in American media aimed not just at young people, but all ages.                  

Look, I'm not going to pretend that a lot of people are going to have the same kind of warm response to IF that I did. Kids could get thrown off by its slow pacing for the genre and adults might be unsatisfied with how the rules and worldbuilding of the imaginary friends are handled. The earnestness of its messages about not letting the cruelty of the world rob of your creativity or positive memories from the past just left me charmed and emotional in a way that few films do these days. It's extremely easy to forget or overlook creative pursuits or beautiful moments from the past that helped make who you are and IF exists to remind people of the importance of these things. Would've been more ideal if these ideas were packaged into a movie that was less rough around the edges? Sure, but they're impactful nonetheless and I commend Krasinski for taking a break from making great horror movies to put something so lovely out into the world. 

Grade: B+