Movie Review Imagine That

Imagine That (2009) 

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick

Written by Ed Solomon, Chris Matheson 

Starring Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church, Ronny Cox, Martin Sheen

Release Date August 14th, 2009 

Published August 15th, 2009 

The problem with Eddie Murphy as the star of family movies is that he never seems sincere. Some of it is our fault as an audience. We pigeonholed Eddie as a foul mouthed comedy superstar. The move to becoming the star of family comedies came after we were tired of his act. There were also some unfortunate offscreen issues that dimmed Eddie's star. With few offers on the table Eddie jumped the family movie bandwagon and has never looked back. It is in that rather desperate move into the family genre where his insincerity lies and the latest evidence is called Imagine That.

Evan Danielson (Murphy) is a top stock speculator. He is in line to take over the Denver branch of a major investment firm and he owes it all to a focus on work at all costs. Evan lost his family due to his single minded focus on work and now only sees his daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi) sparingly. There is however, an impediment to Evan's ascension to the top at work. His name is Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church, a long way from his Sideways Oscar nomination), a fellow speculator who dazzles clients with his alleged Indian heritage. He undermines Evan at every turn with his eyes on the big promotion.

Things get even more difficult for Evan when his ex-wife (Nicole Ari Parker) drops their daughter on him for a week. He had agreed to take Olivia before the promotion came up, now she is holding him to it. For her part, Olivia is a troubled, quiet child with few friends and a possibly unhealthy attachment to her security blanket.

Instead of interacting with other kids at school Olivia places her blanket over her head and has long conversations with several imaginary friends. The 'friends' are princesses who not only talk to Olivia but have advice for her dad. They can predict stocks and soon they are giving Evan stunningly accurate advice.

Daddy and daughter bond over playing with the princesses, only she can see them, but convention tells us as moviegoers that the bond cannot last and eventually the need for stock advice from the princesses will come between them. Worse yet, like clockwork, the finale of Imagine That comes down to a chase to the school where...

Oh, do I even have to tell you.

You've seen Imagine That in different forms a thousand different times. Murphy and Director Karey Kirkpatrick adhere to absolutely every family movie cliche creating a rote, predictable and desperately unfunny slog through the typical and expected.

Well, there is one element of Imagine That I did not predict: The sad, despicable and ludicrous performance of the once promising Thomas Haden Church. Had he played this role before earning an Oscar nomination for Sideways and going on to star in Spiderman 3, it would make sense. Playing second fiddle to Eddie Murphy in a third rate family movie cannot be where Thomas Haden Church imagined his career.

Worse yet is the actual performance in which Church plays a white guy pretending to be a full blooded American Indian and using that heritage to become a successful stock analyst. Why Church or anyone involved in Imagine That thought this character was a good idea is, pardon the pun, unimaginable.

The stupidity of Church's character only makes worse the experience of the overall dreadful enterprise that is Imagine That.