IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched in the cinema (90th visit in 2024)
With his two "A Quiet Place" films and the much less well-known "The Hollars", John Krasinski has already proven that he is not only a good actor, but also an excellent screenwriter and director. While the "A Quiet Place" films tell the stories of individual survivors in a dystopian world infested by alien monsters, his children's film "IF" is a complete change of genre. Despite a child-friendly and predominantly cheerful production, John Krasinski addresses serious topics in this film. Behind the façade of beautiful animation, numerous jokes and a colourful world, "IF" tells a story about children coping with trauma, normalizes childhood fears that can extend into adulthood and shows that even adults should retain a little childlike imagination.
However, moviegoers with children should not be put off by these more serious themes. "IF" works perfectly as a children's film without children having to understand or even recognize these themes. The tone and humor of the film are classically child-friendly and only contain a few hidden jokes for adults to keep the parents in the cinema amused. Only in terms of exposition and logic does "IF" have some weaknesses. Without giving too much away, it is not clear for a long time during the movie what rules govern the world shown.
Why only Bea (Cailey Fleming) can see all the IFs and when exactly the IFs are generally visible is sometimes not answered at all or insufficiently. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to bother anyone, and certainly not Bea's grandmother (Fiona Shaw), that a 12-year-old girl can roam around a big American city alone all day. In a children's movie like "IF", however, it's easy to overlook these expositional gaps. In the end, "IF" leads to a finale that has been foreshadowed throughout the movie. Nevertheless, Krasinski once again proves his talent as a screenwriter and provides the audience with a coherent, emotional and beautifully staged ending.
In terms of staging, both young and old will get their money's worth here. The animated IFs look consistently high-quality and their great variety is a joy to watch. The acting and, above all, the comedic timing of both John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds is excellent as usual. But Cailey Fleming is also on par with her adult colleagues. In the original English version in particular, even the dubbing voices are cast with prominent names, as Emily Blunt, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Matt Damon and George Clooney, among others, lend their voices to the various IFs.
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