It's been a rough year for family films.
As cinema outings have grown less affordable, kid-friendly screenings have simultaneously evaporated. What few films remain are now overwhelmingly reliant on brand familiarity; Kung Fu Panda 4, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and another Garfield adaptation are this year's big-ticket items for the primary school crowd.
The brainchild of writer-director John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), IF isn't just that rare breed of family film to have been born from an original idea, it's also the only big budget release this year ($100m or more) to have been conceived independently from pre-existing material and franchise expectations.
With that in mind, there's little pleasure in reporting that the resulting film is a frustrating misfire.
If you've seen My Neighbour Totoro, Bridge to Terabithia or A Monster Calls, the broad premise of IF will be strikingly familiar: there's an ailing parent, a precocious child and a world of pure imagination that offers a reprieve from the harshness of reality.
Cailey Fleming (The Walking Dead) plays Bea, a 12-year-old girl who moves in with her grandmother (Killing Eve's Fiona Shaw — a genuinely warm presence) while her single father (played by Krasinski himself) undergoes an unspecified operation. Her mother died years ago, and is only glimpsed in an opening montage of cloying camcorder home movies. (To be clear, the film takes place in 2024; cinema is yet to become nostalgic about the iPhone 11.)
In between visits to her dad in hospital, Bea discovers she can communicate with imaginary friends (otherwise known as "IFs") who haunt the streets of New York and reside in her building, having drifted from their now grown-up children.
The imaginary friends, who take the form of household objects and generic fantasies, are voiced by actors likely to appeal to parents. There's Phoebe Waller-Bridge as an anthropomorphised butterfly, Steve Carell as a fluffy purple monstrosity (equal parts Totoro and McDonald's Grimace), and Krasinski again as a roasting marshmallow.
Pointless cameos abound; Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, George Clooney and Bill Hader have fleeting voice roles that are both unrecognisable and forgettable. Those who sit through the credits will notice someone is even credited for the silent role of Keith, an invisible IF who exists solely to provoke pratfalls — a cute in-joke that unwittingly betrays how pointless this entire A-list supporting cast is.
The film's most prominent star comes in the form of Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), who initially developed the project with Krasinski. He plays Cal, a disillusioned ex-clown who shares Bea's gift of seeing dead imaginary friends, though he believes it to be a curse.
As the reluctant ringleader of the IFs, Reynolds once again indulges in his exasperated everyman schtick, though at least he reins in his most irritating ticks.
After confidently establishing his horror director cred with the slickly satisfying Quiet Place series, Krasinski struggles to negotiate the demands of a CGI-heavy tentpole release. The IFs are poorly integrated with their live-action settings and real-life actors, and extended fantasy sequences strand Cal and Bea in a deluge of queasy digital excess.
Uncanny digital effects can often be offset by the presence of genuine imagination, but few studio filmmakers are capable of sincere childlike wonder. Rather than coaxing the audience's curiosity or crafting a resonant story, IF resorts to cheap spectacle, hollow sentiment and weak laughs.
Beyond the stacked voice cast, the film also feels like a considerable waste of talents such as Janusz Kamiński — Steven Spielberg's go-to cinematographer for nearly 30 years — as well as Michael Giacchino, the prolific composer of countless Disney films (including overt inspirations for IF such as Inside Out and Up).
As Bea and Cal endeavour to match IFs with new host kids, the film takes a series of arbitrary narrative turns that quickly lose sight of its younger audience while zeroing in on their parents. When children go to watch a film about imaginary friends, do they want to see those imaginary friends attend counselling? To what extent do children need to be encouraged to embrace their inner child?
John Krasinski's charms may have undergirded The Office for nearly a decade, but they're beginning to strain under the weight of his own self-awareness; Bea's dad is performed and written as a grown-up Jim Halpert, incessantly pulling silly pranks on his daughter.
The more Krasinski leans into the role of being the internet's favourite dad, the less interesting he gets. The fathers in his films — which he plays himself, of course — are unfailingly decent pillars of support. They are little more than simple role models.
IF bills itself as a film about children celebrating their imagination and processing grief — in reality, it's a therapy session for parents.
IF is in cinemas now.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA1LTIxL2ZpbG0tcmV2aWV3LWlmLWRpcmVjdGVkLWJ5LWpvaG4ta3Jhc2luc2tpLWZhaWxzLXRvLWRlbGl2ZXIvMTAzODU1ODc20gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMzg1NTg3Ng?oc=5
2024-05-20 19:37:29Z
CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA1LTIxL2ZpbG0tcmV2aWV3LWlmLWRpcmVjdGVkLWJ5LWpvaG4ta3Jhc2luc2tpLWZhaWxzLXRvLWRlbGl2ZXIvMTAzODU1ODc20gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMzg1NTg3Ng
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar