Film Review of the Week

Fantasy

IF (U)

Review: At a certain point in life, we are convinced to cast aside childish things and grow up. Imaginary friends are among the casualties. A Quiet Place writer-director-actor John Krasinski trades extra-terrestrials that hunt by sound for the fantastical creations of febrile young minds in a joyous comedy adventure set in a world where imaginary friends (IFs) are wonderfully real. These comforting companions congregate in a retirement home run by an avuncular teddy bear (voiced by Louis Gossett Jr), concealed beneath an abandoned amusement park’s wonder wheel.

The wonder of Krasinski’s film is its ability to quickstep between heartwarming sentiment and family-friendly humour with a menagerie of digitally rendered IFs, who gel seamlessly with flesh-and-blood actors. A misnamed purple furball christened Blue (Steve Carell), whose irresistibly cuddly design recalls Sulley from Monsters, Inc., pilfers the greatest screen time and is a merchandising dream. An amusingly droll Ryan Reynolds and teenager Cailey Fleming are a delightful on-screen double-act, galivanting around city streets as mentor and wide-eyed protegee of “a sort of matchmaking agency to help IFs find new kids”. Krasinski’s picture tips us off too early to its lip-quivering finale but being one step ahead of the characters doesn’t greatly diminish the emotional pull.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Fleming) relinquishes her grasp on childish wonder following the death of her mother (Catharine Daddario). Living with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) while her father (Krasinski) is in hospital awaiting heart surgery, Bea gatecrashes the solitude of upstairs neighbour Cal (Reynolds), who helps discarded IFs find new children in need. Bea discovers she possesses the same ability as Cal to see these wondrous outcasts including English ballet dancer Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), caped canine crusader Guardian Dog (Sam Rockwell), trench coat-clad private detective Cosmo (Christopher Meloni), rainbow-loving ball of energy Unicorn (Emily Blunt) and giant red Gummy Bear (Amy Schumer).

Bea pledges to help Cal find new homes for the stranded IFs and audition the perfect companion for a chirpy young hospital patient named Benjamin (Alan Kim). In the process, the youngster processes grief for her mother and begins to heal her psychological wounds.

Dedicated to the memory of Gossett Jr, who died earlier this year, IF is a rousing celebration of the power of imagination to conjure magic in times of great sadness and stress. The misty-eyed prologue has mournful echoes of Up and is blessed with an elegiac score from composer Michael Giacchino, who deservedly won an Oscar for Pixar’s computer-animated tearjerker. Fleming’s assured central performance leaves a lump in the throat and even if Krasinski’s script ultimately teeters over into mawkishness, the wholesome sweetness that glisters in every frame is hard to resist. Many IFs, no buts.

Comedy

Two Tickets To Greece (12A)

Review: Girls wanna have fun but have forgotten how in the coming-of-middle age comedy drama Two Tickets To Greece, which gallivants through Aegean islands in the company of French actresses Olivia Cote and Laure Calamy. Their odd couple dynamic is dialled up to ear-splitting volume. The former portrays a shy, socially awkward divorcee, who thinks too much before she speaks and often forgets to speak at all; the latter embodies a fun-loving, outgoing chatterbox, who is the life and soul of every party with a relentless exuberance that has earnt her the nickname Tinnitus. Mamma Mia! splashed through similarly picturesque Greek locations and there are moments in writer-director Marc Fitoussi’s undemanding, feelgood jaunt when audiences may be muttering, “Here we go again…” as his script distils familiar life lessons. Sisterly solidarity is the name of the game.

Narrative detours to islands in the Cyclades, southeast of mainland Greece, sustain a breezy pace and introduce colourful supporting characters to act as peacemakers during inevitable bickering between the central duo. Kristin Scott Thomas materialises astride a quad bike after an hour as a British aristocrat by birth, nickname Bijou, who rejected a life of privilege in Kent to become a nomadic jewellery maker on Mykonos with an artist lover (Panos Koronis). Her self-confessed freeloader’s casual, bohemian attire is reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s ebullient matriarch in the Abba musical.

It has been two years since electro-therapy technician Blandine (Cote) separated from her husband after he left her for a woman young enough to be a friend of their 20-year-old son Benjamin (Alexandre Desrousseaux). The child fears his painfully uptight mother will become a recluse as he prepares to fly the nest. Consequently, Benjamin arranges a secret reunion for his mother and her schooldays best friend, Magalie (Calamy).

In 1989, 15-year-old Blandine (Leelou Laridan) and Magalie (Marie Mallia) swooned over the soundtrack to The Big Blue and dreamt of a pilgrimage to the Greek island of Amorgos featured in the film. Decades later, they fly to Santorini to experience the dazzling blue waters of the Aegean. A disastrous ferry ride to Amorgos necessitates a detour to the small island of Kerinos, which has no tourist industry besides archaeological tour groups and surfers. “I came for The Big Blue but I find myself in Point Break,” bitterly complains Blandine.

Two Tickets To Greece offers an all-inclusive package deal of gentle laughter, dewy-eyed reminiscence and empowerment. Calamy and Cote are an appealing double act, the former wholeheartedly embracing her firecracker’s casual attitude to full frontal nudity. Fitoussi’s tour of self-doubt following a relationship breakdown and trauma does not stray from a well-trodden path but the scenery is consistently gorgeous. Rebirth, reinvention and healing in a sun-baked crucible of civilisation.