The movie is based on James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet’s book with the same title. It has the same concept and idea with a different story. Which is typical of a movie since movies don’t always depend on the books, right? That’s why many either complain or praise the movie depending on which is great – the movie or the book. In my opinion, both of them are great. Well, in their own way. I am not going to talk about how much they differ from one another because – like I said – either way is great.


Spoiler alert!


The story is about Jane Claremont, a person you could call a “Momma’s girl”. At the start of the movie, she is 10 years old. Well, 9 since she was born on 5:15 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. She has an imaginary friend named Michael. Just Michael. He is a 10 year old boy (I’ve read the script so I know the exact age) who Jane considers as a real friend. Then there’s Vivian (Stockard Channing), Jane’s mother, who was a famous Broadway producer. The scene is taken at the Astor Court where Michael and Jane have dessert every Sunday. After that, Vivian takes them – actually, it’s only Jane – to Tiffany’s to buy Jane her birthday present. While at Tiffany’s, Michael says his goodbye forever to Jane a few minutes before 5:15. She tells him she’ll never forget him even if the rules state that children automatically forget their imaginary friend when they reach the age of 10 – at which they leave them. Twenty years later, they find each other, both all grown up with Michael (now played by Eric Winter) visible and living the life of a human. Jane (Alyssa Milano) is busy with the wedding preparations – her and her famous Broadway actor boyfriend, Hugh Morrison’s (Ivan Sergei) wedding. As Jane spends time with Michael, doing things they did when they were young and happy, she begins to develop feelings for him but tries not to as she is set to marrying Hugh. But as fate would have it, she still did, and she discovers what real love is. And that’s for you to find out dear readers.


What I loved about the movie is that it has great lessons. Probably the best lessons I’ve ever learned: to not let others influence your decisions, to take a breath and for once know that you can live your life like a child, to believe that there is someone out there – visible or not – who knows us more than we know ourselves and who will give us the love we deserve, to choose someone we know we want to be with for the rest of our lives, and lastly, to try the Jane-and-Michael game. I think it’ll be fun. I would love to try it out sometime!


I rate it 9 out of 10. I recommend you read the book too. Like I said, it’s a different story all over but I bet it will make you wish you had an imaginary friend. If you did, I bet you’ll wish they were real.