After discovering she can see other children’s imaginary friends, a girl embarks on a mission to reunite forgotten IFs with their human companions. A film by John Krasinski, starring Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Catharine Daddario, and Fiona Shaw.

Many years after her mother (Catharine Daddario) passed away, Bea (Cailey Fleming) returns to her grandmother Margaret’s apartment in New York to stay temporarily while her father awaits heart surgery at the hospital. Nothing much in Margaret’s apartment has changed since Bea’s last visit when she was much younger.

Margaret (Fiona Shaw) shows Bea her room, and a pink box containing Bea’s childhood paintings, which Margaret has kept. Margaret mentions that back then Bea had a wild imagination. Bea tells Margaret that she’s twelve now and doesn’t consider those things anymore. Surprise, but understanding what Bea meant, Margaret then puts the box and the painting supplies in the storage room before taking Bea to see her father (John Krasinski) at the hospital.

One night, Bea returns from the grocery store where she bought a charger for an old camcorder she found in the storage room. She sees a strange creature in the dark standing in front of her grandmother’s apartment building. Bea thinks the creature is a little girl and says hello. The creature seems shocked that Bea can see her, dashes through the door and races up the stairs.

Curious, Bea follows the creature to the top floor. As Bea moves closer to a closed door, she overhears someone talking on the other side. From inside the room, a man’s voice boomed, telling Bea to go away. Bea tells him that she just wants to say hello to his little girl. The mysterious man replies that there’s no little girl here, and, insists that Bea should go away.

The next night, while watching an old clip from the camcorder, Bea hears a thud, followed by the girl’s voice and a man running down the stairs. Bea decides to follow them. Bea becomes frightened when she witnesses the man climbing out of a nearby house, followed by a giant purple furry creature. As Bea turns around, a butterfly-like creature appears. Startled by the creature, Bea suddenly faints.

Bea regains consciousness and finds herself in the room upstairs. Her attention is drawn to a desk full of old photos spread across it. Bea gets spooked by a giant purple furry creature emerging from the shadows warning her not to touch anything on the desk. The creature introduces himself as Blue (Steve Carell), despite having purple furry hair.

A butterfly-like creature introduces herself as Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). And the pessimistic man who can see imaginary friends is Cal (Ryan Reynolds). Blossom then explains to Bea that they’re on a mission to match imaginary friends, nicknamed IFs, with new potential children. Their original human companions have grown up and forgotten about them. However, their mission hasn’t been entirely successful because not every child can see imaginary friends.

Blue believes Bea is a chosen one since she can see imaginary friends like him and Blossom. Blossom suggests that Bea could help them find new kids. Initially, Bea thinks that being able to see imaginary friends is a curse. Believing it would return her life to normal, she agrees to help them.

Cal takes Bea to Memory Lane, a retirement community for imaginary friends hidden under a theme park where Bea used to come with her parents when she was a child. There, she meets several forgotten imaginary friends, including Bubble (Awkwafina), Unicorn (Emily Blunt), Spaceman (George Clooney), Ice (Bradley Cooper), Flower (Matt Damon), Banana (Bill Hader), Slime (Keegan-Michael Key), Octopus (Blake Lively), Magician Mouse (Sebastian Maniscalco), Cosmo (Christopher Meloni), Ghost (Matthew Rhys), Guardian Dog (Sam Rockwell), Alligator (Maya Rudolph), Gummy Bear (Amy Schumer), Viola (Allyson Seeger), Robot (Jon Stewart), Keith (Brad Pitt), Art Teacher (Richard Jenkins )and an old teddy bear named Lewis (Louis Gossett Jr.).

Bea’s attempt to match an imaginary friend to Benjamin (Alan Kim), a boy whom she befriends during her visit at the hospital, proves unsuccessful as Benjamin can’t see any of the imaginary friends Bea carefully selected for him. Later, Bea soon realizes that the mission may not be about finding new children but finding a way to reconnect imaginary friends with their original human companions.

Written and directed by American filmmaker John Krasinski, who also stars in the film, “IF” suffers from several shortcomings. The introductory scene sets a sad tone, which the film doesn’t elaborate on or delve deeper into. The narrative is straightforward and predictable, lacking in complexity.

Additionally, the small number of forgotten imaginary friends at the retirement home is puzzling. Given the vast number of imaginary friends that likely exist, where are the others? Did they disappear? Did they die? How? The film offers cryptic messages like “That’s not how it works” when the protagonist asks questions, but it never provides satisfying answers.

Why is the protagonist’s childhood imaginary friend a middle-aged male clown? It stands out in contrast to the other children’s more typical cartoon-based characters. This is a rather unsettling choice, even for the plot twist.

The film also fails to deliver on the expectation of seeing every imaginary friend reunite with their human companion since there are probably only a dozen of them. Several characters, like the giant sad cat, the ice cube, and the grumpy old bear, are left without closure. The bear’s age of 94 years further deepens the confusion, suggesting his human friend is likely long dead.

The scene at the hospital where all imaginary friends just disappear also absolutely makes no sense. Why would they do that? Just so they can reappear again at the end? Why?!

IF was theatrically released in the United States on 17 May 2024. The film grossed $181 million worldwide against its $110 production budget.