2024 U Wri/Dir- John Krasinski I live in a somewhat quiet town. The biggest news at the moment is the fate of the town paddling pool. I say paddling pool, but it in fact now resembles a dirty puddle in the middle of the playground. Luckily, the council has come up with a solution. A choice of two new all-singing, all-dancing splash pads. Of course, this news has been greeted with furious anger, usually reserved for, ‘What do you mean Sainsbury’s closes on Christmas Day?’ or, ‘Why is market day cancelled due to 20 inches of snow? We used to just walk straight through it!’ Petitions, daily Facebook posts, demand that the puddle, sorry, paddling pool stay exactly how it is because, ‘the kids love it.’ The thing is, nobody appears to have asked the kids what they want. All these people commenting are way over the age it is acceptable [at least in polite company] to be paddling in any kind of pool, puddle or not. This long winded story leads me to my point… when we review family films, what perspective should we choose? IF is the latest offering. Is it a good family film? This is where it gets a bit complicated. Watching the trailer, IF looks just the job to entertain the little ones on a rainy day… Fun CGI characters, a bouncy soundtrack, and the compulsory fart joke. With Ryan Reynolds in the lead, and a ‘I know that voice!’ cast [including Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Steve Carrell etc..] it also looked decent enough to keep long-suffering adults entertained too [my Mum understandably attempted to read a paper during Pokemon the Third Movie]. The problem is, all those bouncy, happy, farty moments? They are pretty much shown in the trailer. There isn’t more light, figuratively or literally, in IF. IF tells the story of Bea [ an impressive, understated performance by Cailey Fleming ], a twelve-year-old girl who is getting over the death of her mother, whilst dealing with the fact that her father [John Krasinski- also writer and director of the film] is about to undergo heart surgery, whilst also having to move to a new building. Phew. By this point, you begin to wish that a minion or two would appear. Warning; the first half-an-hour is dark. Bea is whisked off to stay with her kindly but inept grandmother [Fiona Shaw] in a dark, creepy apartment building. The mise-en-scene throughout the film is a similar theme, a brave if not bemusing choice for a family film. My Mum and I took my eight-year-old niece, and we kept giving worried sidelong glances at her. Bea brushes off any kind of offers of help repeatedly saying ‘I’m not a kid anymore.’ Your target audience is though! I kept wishfully thinking. Thank goodness, my niece’s overpriced Pick and Mix and Pepsi kept her entertained enough to get her through a frankly odd, bizarrely paced beginning- until, thankfully, the promised CGI characters appeared. ‘IF’s [or Imaginary Friend's] are running riot in the apartment building, missing the children who imagined them, but had gone on to grow up and forget them. Bea joins Cal [a solid performance by Ryan Reynolds] to try and find them new owners, for reasons never really explained. Without spoiling an admittedly sweet twist; the themes of memory and embracing our past and the ‘safe’ places in our mind, did have me fighting back tears more than once. Still… is this really family fun? I hadn’t even laughed yet. It just all felt a bit… unbalanced. The film doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It’s almost as though Krasinski wanted to make two films. A serious drama film dealing with grief, abandonment and the fear of growing up. The other, a lighthearted child-friendly comedy [which would admittedly be a short film, the jokes aren’t aplenty here…] the two together results in a messy, plodding mess. You don’t feel like you are under the capable hands of Pixar or Disney here Leaving the cinema, my Mum and I discussed in hushed tones our issues with the film. The slow build, the darkness, the lack of jokes… ‘maybe a 6/10?’ I suggested. My niece shook her head. ‘10/10!’ she said firmly. ‘Really?’ I replied in surprise. ‘Were you ever bored?’ ‘At the start I was a bit… but once the IF’s appeared, it was so good, don’t you think?’ She skipped happily to the car, and proceeded to write up the story of the film all the way home- the dark moments as well as the light. Which leads me back to the paddling pool. Without my niece’s input, chances are I would have moaned away about the plot holes [there are a fair few], the unoriginal concept [basically a rip-off of a Supernatural episode, with some Coco mixed in], and the lack of colour and light to keep younger children entertained [despite its U certificate and misleading trailer.] … but the film wasn’t made for me. It was made for my niece, who was captivated, who remembered every part of the film to write down, who asked important questions afterwards. How patronising of me to think she wouldn’t take in the deeper points, alongside the CGI characters and fart jokes. After all, classics such as The Secret Garden, The Land Before Time, and even The Lion King, weren’t afraid to delve into darker areas. Children are capable of taking the light with the dark. Children, it seems, are more willing to give new experiences a chance. Perhaps we critics who think we know it all, should take a step back and listen to the real voice of reason. Let them have the new pool. IF is in cinemas now.
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