IF is a little bit of a risky prospect in today’s tricky cinematic climate; a big, expensive, sentimental family movie that isn’t based on an existing property. While it’s not possible to guarantee bums on seats, IF scores in terms of quality, getting close to the holy grail of having enough colour, fun, and sweetness for the young ones, and a Proustian hit of fuzzy nostalgia for those saddled with adulthood. It may be slightly lacking in terms of laughter, aiming for the heartstrings instead, but given the dearth of quality family entertainment recently, IF is a welcome tonic.

Bea (Cailey Fleming) is a young girl whose father (director John Krasinski) goes into hospital for an operation. This triggers understandable anxiety, as Bea has already lost her mother through illness. While staying with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) she meets Cal (Ryan Reynolds), a grumpy man who lives in an apartment upstairs and who acts as a kind of wrangler to a group of monsters called Ifs, or imaginary friends. Bea’s sadness has reawakened her ability to see these beasts and she joins Cal and the Ifs in attempting to reunite them with the humans who dreamed them into being, or to find new ones.

IF certainly looks the part, with a seamless mix of live-action and CGI beasties. It takes a while for us to meet them, but they’re worth the wait. The film – curiously pensive up to that point – bursts into vibrant life, setting the stage for a broad, visually bold adventure that is actually fairly intimate and specific in scope. The relatively low stakes makes for a relaxed experience, augmented by the menagerie of monsters, but really focussed on the simple tale of a distressed girl reclaiming her childhood after discovering the harsher realities of life sooner than she should have. In helping others, she ultimately finds some healing herself.

A nice touch is in the variety of monsters, appearing in all shapes and sizes, and voiced by a cavalcade of recognisable voices. Chief among these is a humanoid butterfly creature called Blossom (a primly companiable Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and a furry, lumbering purple lummox called Blue (Steve Carrell, going as big as his character demands). Some of them are fairly mundane like a wise old teddy bear (voiced with a sense of poignant elegy by the late Louis Gossett Jr.), and some are weirdly specific, like a glass of ice water (Bradley Cooper). The implication is that while there is a base level of imagination in all children, some are more imaginative than others.

This could also apply to filmmakers. IF‘s main problem is it wears its influences on its sleeve as much as its heart. The monsters being left adrift after a child outgrows them is very reminiscent of Toy Story. A title montage quotes the perfect sorrow of another Pixar classic, Up, a dance number is ripped from the Mary Poppins playbook, and the premise itself feels like a direct riff on My Neighbor Totoro. Besides this, the already nakedly sentimental story is amplified by a needlessly manipulative score by Michael Giacchino.

Being derivative is less likely to be an issue for the kids coming to the film however, even if their parents have already introduced them to the joys of Pixar and Studio Ghibli. The film’s messages about the power of the imagination and not being in too much of a hurry to grow up are also pretty evergreen. These are ably embodied by the excellent Cailey Fleming, impressively managing to play audience surrogate and shine as a character amidst the animated distractions. It would have been easy for Bea to be rather perfunctory, but the writing and Fleming’s performance always reminds us that it’s her story first and foremost. Reynolds is very much recognisably himself, but dials down the schtick to the more-or-less straight man role that the film demands.

A big-hearted and sweet experience – perhaps even leaning a little towards saccharine – there’s a fair amount to enjoy in IF. A great cast, a positive message, and some lovely live-action/ animated hybrid action in the great traditions of Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? A cynic may point out that the childhood depicted might skew closer to that of the filmmakers’ generation than that of Bea’s, but there’s a broadly non-specific wellspring of genetic nostalgia that IF taps into that will likely resonate whether your childhood was jumpers-for-goalposts and Merseybeat, lumberjack shirts and Douglas Copeland, or MySpace and nu-metal.

In cinemas from Fri 17 May 2024