‘IF’: Imaginary Friends and Real Ryan Reynoldses

I have always hated the movie Labyrinth. I’m convinced most people who say they like it are either relying on nostalgia or remembering David Bowie’s tight pants. Most fantasy-related, childhood-reflecting movies are not good.

Going into IF (or Imaginary Friends) a movie with probably the worst name, marketing-wise since Ice Pirates. I wanted to be a hater. So, so bad. I went into the movie wanting to turn it off within the first five minutes: sick mom, cornball dad, paper-thin grandmother. We’ve been down this road before. But alas. The movie was goddamned heart-warming.

IF came out in 2024 and bombed. Last week, it debuted on Netflix and has been booming. On top of bad marketing, I blame timing. The movie is a 2024 family fantasy from John Krasinski, who wrote, directed, and produced the thing alongside Ryan Reynolds. The plot centers on Bea, played by Cailey Fleming, a kid who can see imaginary friends left behind by children who grew up and forgot about them. Reynolds plays her guide into that world. The voice cast is absurdly stacked — Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Blake Lively — which is either a sign of how much goodwill Krasinski has in Hollywood or a really good catering budget.

As Bea’s father, Krasinski, is laid up for heart surgery, she dives into a world of imaginary friends. And while this plot seems trite, it was nice. The whole movie feels like a bowl of soup. There are no cry scenes, no gotchas, just a lot of moments where I forgot about the taxes I just filed, the house rental agency I’m fighting with over my credit report, the Trump presidency and the clusterfuck that goes along with anything he does, including the pain at the gas pump. For an hour and a half, I watched characters reconnect with their old selves. And that goes back to why I hate Labyrinth  — it’s so badly written, it’s a kid’s movie for grown-ups, because when I showed it to my 12-year-old, they told me it was horrible. I definitely agreed.

IF has a strong plot. Sure, there are no surprises. It ends how you think it does. Thankfully, there are no musical numbers, but plenty of heart. The movie bombed in theaters because we didn’t need such comfort in 2024, but even then people didn’t know what’s playing anymore — going to the movies is an act of making a plan. Apparently, in a world of convenience, we suck at planning even our own leisure.

But, thanks to the demon boxes in our pockets that add to our learned helplessness, we have movies in our hands. At the time of the Netflix drop, the movie has one thing going for it: everything is horrible, and this is a welcome respite. It’s so good-natured to see a friendly teddy bear or a cast of imaginary friends looking to make new friends, in a non-forced way that leaves the viewer feeling okay. What I took away from IF is that the movie is for two kinds of people: a kid who’s just about to transition into a teenage asshole who hates everything, and the person like me who’s over being an adult, who yearns for a simpler time in life — to remember laughing as a child, to draw for the sake of seeing ink on the page rather than hoping to turn it into an experience of commerce.

Seeing a cast of fantastical creatures who just want to make their people happy clearly resonates with people as the movie sits in Netflix’s most watched. And I don’t think it’s the star power that’s driving those numbers. We’re all emotionally beaten down and everyone is looking for a life raft. I think a lot of us with bill collectors calling — and less and less money in the bank — we’re all wishing we had an imaginary friend we could hang out with. You ain’t getting that with the Goblin King — neither David Bowie in his tight trousers nor Trump.

Fleming is a joy to watch in this. I hope this movie earns her a lot of acting work. She makes the whole plot believable through her interplay with Reynolds, who isn’t his usual slapstick self but instead acts as a spiritual guide through the trials of youth, realizing — and not without hope — that the world is a complicated place. Like I said, I so wanted to be a hater about this. I just couldn’t.