Family comedies are a fan favorite, and Hollywood is never in short supply of what they think we want to see, and every once in awhile we get good movies, like "Up" that are a pleasure to watch for the entire family, and sometimes we get movies like "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" that are not worth the time of day. What we get in between are movies like "Imagine That" a family friendly movie that presents equal doses of immaturity and seriousness, that help to bridge the gaps in the plot for everyone.
Focused, driven, and always in control, Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy) is a financial genius, who is so organized that his notes have notes. His one job is to make his several dozen rich clients even more money. He does this very well. This doesn't leave much time for his seven-year-old daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi), who is a socially detached child, dependent on her security blanket nicked named the goo gaa, she won't go anywhere without it in her clutches. This blanket is her doorway to an imaginary world of princesses and fire breathing dragons.
When Olivia's mother (Nicole Ari Parker) asks Evan to take care of her for a week, things get out of hand, Evan is starting to feel like he is losing out, he now has some competition. Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) is gaining power and favor with the boss, (Ronny Cox). Whitefeather claims to be Native American but looks so much like a con man that it's no surprise when it's revealed later in the movie that he has little to no Native American blood in his ancestry. The day comes when Olivia is left alone in Evans office and draws on his work notes, she tells him that the princesses tell her that some of the companies Evan is looking at will marry other companies, that others will have their pants pulled down and that others will be cry babies and go running to their mommy. After his meeting with the clients and his boss where Evan says look at my new crazy ideas, Evan goes back to his office fearing he is about to be fired, when the boss calls him into his office Evan finds out that two of the companies in his notes did in fact merge, that one had dirty secrets exposed and one of the companies who got exposed cried set up and went and hid behind their parent company.
Evan now believes what his daughters imaginary friends are telling them now, he gets Olivia to get them to talk about many companies that Evan is looking at, some he tells his clients to avoid for many reasons, some he tells his clients to get into, all on the whim of his daughters princess friends. Evan starts to get deeper and deeper into his daughters world, when he gets the chance of a lifetime, to run the portfolio of one of the firms biggest clients, (Martin Sheen) he must outfox Whitefeather. The one problem is that Evan has gotten so comfortable with the goo gaa that he runs to find Olivia who is at a sleepover, he breaks in the house and tries to steal the blanket, is caught and is thrown out, when he screams that he needs the goo gaa his friend slams the door. After Evan goes to talk to Olivia at home she hands him the blanket and tells him she would prefer he not come to hear her sing, he tells her that if that's what she wants he wont, his real reason is that he has the meeting with his biggest client the next morning.
When Evan finally understands that it is Olivia that matters most to him, he walks out of the meeting and goes to the Chilton School where she is going to sing, he comes dressed as a king, because he had promised her to play dress up and never found the time. He of course walked out of the meeting leaving behind his perspective that the client looks over, after the performance Evan comes out to find the client waiting for him, this is of expected the movie is so cliche filled that you will see the dilemma that Evan will face almost immediately. That's not to say this movie isn't worth watching because it is, the whole family will enjoy this one, it is the performance of Yara Shahidi that saves this entire film, she is so cute to watch and at times you will find yourself saying awww.
I give Imagine That a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this is the one film that you can take your children to see and not worry about the more adult situations that seem to be so popular in family themed movies today.
Imagine That is rated PG for some Mild Language and Brief Questionable Behavior
Running time is 1 hr. 47 mins.
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