After being available to rent for a couple of months, IF is finally streaming on Prime Video for all subscribers. This year, John Krasinski helmed, produced, and wrote the screenplay for IF, a fantasy comedy-drama. The film boasts an ensemble cast that includes the likes of Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Steve Carell, and Louis Gossett Jr. 

Bea's journey: From tragedy to encountering forgotten imaginary friends

The film, which features both live-action and animated scenes, follows Fleming's character, a young girl who, after enduring a traumatic event, starts to see the imaginary companions that their real-life children have left behind. 

IF begins with a tragic montage as Audrey Hoffman's character, Bea, loses her sick mother, Catherine Daddario. After some time, they send Bea to live with her grandma (Fiona Shaw) while her dad (Krasinski) undergoes surgery. She is now a tween. While she is out on her own, she encounters a mysterious man (Ryan Reynolds) and a swarm of mystical creatures—retired IFs whose children had forgotten about them—as she wanders around her grandma's apartment block.

Filming on IF started in 2019 with Krasinski attached to write and direct the screenplay and Reynolds as the lead actor. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film managed to earn $190.3 million globally.

Many reviewers noted how strikingly similar the movie was to the Cartoon Network program Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which followed an orphanage that took in stuffed animals when their owners' kids outgrew them or adopted other kids.

John Krasinski's pandemic inspiration for IF

Krasinski found inspiration to produce the film while at home with his wife Emily Blunt and their two daughters, Violet (7) and Hazel (10), during the pandemic. The filmmaker-actor remarked that the number of made-up games his girls were engaging in decreased over time. They began to ask serious questions like, 'Are we going to be OK?' as he actually watched their lights begin to go out. When Emily and Krasinski were talking about the importance of letting go of their childhood in order to fully embrace adulthood, he told her, "This is the definition of growing up."

He wrote this narrative to demonstrate that one doesn't have to choose. The enchanted realm one builds is like a time capsule; they will never have to leave it.

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