Ryan Reynolds' 2024 Fantasy Movie That Barely Impacted The Box Office Is Streaming On Netflix

John Krasinski's 2024 fantasy film "IF" was something of a bomb. Made for a budget of $110 million, "IF" ended up making about $190 million worldwide, which means, by the dictates of Hollywood accounting, the film lost money. It was Krasinski's fifth film as a director, as the actor had previously made the David Foster Wallace adaptation "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," the indie comedy "The Hollers," and the first two movies in the "A Quiet Place" series. The first of the "Quiet Place" movies made a whopping $341 million on a $17 million budget, and the sequel made almost $300 million unto itself, so the relatively low B.O. of "IF" was a double disappointment. 

And, to be fair, "IF" was a tough sell. Spinning the central idea of "Drop Dead Fred," "IF" takes place in a world where children's imaginary friends (the IFs of the title) are very real, but invisible to anyone but their creators. When children grow up and forget about their IFs, they become free agents, invisible ghosts drifting among the public. Ryan Reynolds plays a man named Cal who can see IFs, and aims to help them find new children to attach to via a bureaucratic matchmaking agency. Cal teams up with a young girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming), and they aid a large purple monster named Blue (Steve Carell) in his quest, as well as a butterfly creature named Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). 

Kraskinsi himself plays Bea's father, who is awaiting heart surgery, as well as a flaming marshmallow named Marshmallow. Bea's central drama is that she lost her mother a few years previously, and her dad is now checking into the same hospital where she died. Tragedy looms. "IF" is currently streaming on Netflix and on Paramount+. 

"IF" also has many IFs fluttering past the screen, and they are all voiced by slumming celebrities. Louis Gossett, Jr. plays an elderly teddy bear, for instance. Awkwafina plays a sentient cluster of bubbles. Sam Rockwell plays a superhero dog, Bradley Cooper plays a talking glass of ice water, George Clooney plays a cartoon astronaut, Maya Rudolph plays an alligator, Amy Schumer plays a gummy bear, etc. Matt Damon, Bill Hader, Keegan-Michael Key, and Christopher Meloni all appear. Meloni plays a detective IF, which is a riff on his character from "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Ryan Reynolds' wife, Blake Lively, plays a cat in an octopus costume. It seems that John Krasinski called in many favors to make "IF." 

The celebrity cast didn't attract too many audiences, however, and "IF" slipped past them unnoticed. On a personal note, I was quite aware of "IF" after being trailer-stalked for months; the film's preview seemingly appeared before every single film I saw in theaters. 

The tone of "IF" seems to exist on a Tim Burton matrix, although its premise had already been handily claimed by movies like 1991's "Drop Dead Fred" and TV shows like 2004's "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends." The latter was also about imaginary friends whose creators had forgotten about them, and who had to move into a special halfway house with a human boy who could see them. 2015's "Inside Out" also featured a heartbreaking scene of a childhood imaginary friend finally fading from the memories of an 11-year-old girl. Perhaps "IF" bombed because whimsical reanalysis of imaginary friends had already been well-covered. 

Or maybe it was because it wasn't very good; "IF" got only lukewarm reviews from critics.

Critics weren't blown away by "IF," and the film only has a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 213 reviews. The most common complaint seemed to be that "IF" possesses a needlessly complex plot. I didn't even mention Blue's creator, a now-adult businessman played by Bobby Moynihan, nor did I talk about Blossom's creator, who is Bea's grandmother, Margaret (Fiona Shaw). Many critics also noted how derivative "IF" was, like Mint critic Udita Jhunjhunwala. She wrote: 

"The imaginary friends will remind you of Pixar favorites, from 'Toy Story' or 'Monsters, Inc.' but Krasinski's film isn't playful enough in delivering its message, that one needs to tap into and hold on to memories, imagination, lightheartedness, and childlike glee."

The A.V. Club's Anna McKibbin also noted the film's obvious Pixar influences, but was even more negative, giving the film a D+ rating. She noted that the world of imaginary friends was still weirdly grounded in real-world physics, which, as we all know, is not the way little children tend to think. She also noted that Ryan Reynolds was miscast. She wrote: 

"[C]asting Reynolds as the misbegotten lead is indicative of IF's central problem: It isn't sure who it's for. Krasinski is trying to craft a live-action Pixar film, offering audiences a story that balances comedy with moments of honest, everyday tragedy, effectively appealing to children and adults simultaneously." 

Reynolds is well-equipped for that, but the lugubrious pace and weird adult-ish tone leave the movie high and dry. Is this a cynical wisecracking movie, or a whimsical, emotionally serious flick for young and old? /Film thought it was messy. Any curious seekers can now find the film on streaming. Perhaps you'll like it better than the critics did.