IF – Film

Twelve-year-old Bea moves into her grandmother Margaret’s apartment in New York while her father waits for heart surgery in the same hospital where her mother died of cancer years earlier. She chafes against his playful antics, insisting she can handle the situation with maturity. One night, Bea goes out to buy a charger for her mother’s old camcorder and sees an unfamiliar creature, following it back to her grandmother’s building. The next day, she sees the creature again, accompanied by a man. Bea follows them to a nearby house where the man, Cal, retrieves a large furry purple creature named Blue. She also meets the other creature, a butterfly-like being named Blossom, and faints. She awakens in Cal’s apartment where she learns that he has been working with imaginary friends, nicknamed IFs, to place them with new children as their original children have grown up and forgotten them. Initially reluctant, Bea eventually decides to help Cal.

The next day, Cal takes Bea to Memory Lane Retirement Home, a retirement community for IFs housed underneath a swing in Coney Island. There, he introduces Bea to Lewis, an elderly teddy bear who is the head of the facility. He inspires Bea to use her imagination to redesign the facility, much to the chagrin of Cal. Bea tries to match one of the IFs with Benjamin, a young patient at the hospital. She, Cal, and Lewis audition the IFs, but he is unable to see any of them. Feeling unmotivated, Bea talks with Lewis on the Coney Island pier. He gives her an idea that maybe IFs do not need new kids, but rather to reunite with their old ones.

Talking with her grandmother, she sees a picture of her as a young dancer and recognizes Blossom in the background of the picture. Realizing Blossom was her grandmother’s IF, Bea decides to test Lewis’ idea. Playing one of her grandmother’s records inspires Margaret to dance and she remembers Blossom, instilling Bea with hope. Following a tip, Bea, Cal, and Blue find Blue’s original kid, Jeremy, now a grown man trying to launch a business. By eating a fresh croissant in front of Jeremy, Bea reminds him of his childhood home above his parents’ bakery; Jeremy remembers Blue enough for Blue to give Jeremy the confidence he needs for a business presentation.

That evening, Bea arrives at Margaret’s to find her hastily preparing for a return to the hospital because there’s been a complication with her father’s treatment. Bea rushes upstairs to Cal, who comforts her. When Bea says she does not want to say goodbye to her dad, Cal advises her to tell him a story instead. At the hospital, a nurse reassures Bea that her father will be all right. She tells him a story about realizing she was pushing herself to act like a grown-up when she’s just a child who still needs her father. He wakes up and they hug each other. When Bea goes outside his room, she sees that all of the IFs are gone.

Bea goes upstairs to thank Cal, but no one answers his door. The landlady shows Bea that the door opens into an old storage room. After her dad is released from the hospital, he and Bea pack up to go home. Bea finds an old picture she painted of herself, her parents and a clown named Calvin. She suddenly realizes that Cal is her own IF, forgotten after the death of her mother. She thanks him for helping her and tells him she’ll always need him. This allows Bea to see Cal and the IFs again, and they reunite. After Bea and her father drive off, Margaret asks Blossom if the two of them should go inside, causing Blossom to realize Margaret can see her.

Some time later, Cal begins reuniting the IFs with their original kids, now grown up. Benjamin meets his IF, a cartoonish dragon with glasses. Bea and her father return home where he trips on Keith, his old Imaginary friend.