Ryan Reynolds is back in a new film named If. If stands for Imaginary Friends, which has had a long history in the films. There are quite a variety here as these Ifs are trying to find purpose after their kids forget them.

There were several references to Ifs fading away, particularly from Blue (Steve Carell), which I believe is an allusion to Bing Bong from the Inside Out film.

According to IMDB, “A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone’s imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.“

The young girl, Bea, is played by Cailey Fleming and she does a good job opposite Ryan Reynolds, who played Calvin, and John Krasinski, who played her father. Fleming is charming and has a nice chemistry with the other actors. There is a lot placed on her shoulders and if she is unable to carry the load, this movie would absolutely fail. She is very good in this role and very believable.

The designs of the Ifs are fine, albeit fairly average. Nothing really stands out on the design but none of them are bad either.

The voice cast of the Ifs are tremendous. besides Steve Carell, there is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Awkwafina (who is in every animated program now apparently), George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Keegan Michael-Key, Christopher Meloni, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amy Schumer, Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Matthew Rhys, and Sebastian Maniscalco.

The film does run a little long, and the final twist was pretty obvious, but the story itself was charming and showed the strength of the film. Ryan Reynolds is always likable and funny, and this is another example.

I did not feel that this was exclusively a children’s flick. In fact, I believe there are some big time concepts that will appeal to the adults in the crowd as well.

3.75 stars