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BY MAGGIE SCOTT
Forget Jim Cramer; forget Tim Geithner. All you really need to make a killing on the stock market today is a little girl with three imaginary friends and a magic “securities” blanket.

Nickelodean Movies and director Karey Kirkpatrick have brought comedian Eddie Murphy back to family movies as the father of that special little girl in the comedy, Imagine That. Although he’s in a genre that’s pretty much been done to death, Murphy’s got something new to show us with his modulated zanies and matured dramatic chops.

We’ve seen this character before: The driven professional who’d rather face a performance review at work than face pancake-flipping at home.

We’ve seen the situation before: Financial analyst Evan Danielson (Murphy) is divorced and it’s creating “underlying issues” for his seven-year-old daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi) and for his ex-wife Trish (Nicole Ari Parker).

For Olivia the issue is getting her hard-charging father to back away from his computer and smart phone and just be her dad. For Trish the issue is getting Evan to make the work of parenthood as important as the work at Smite Stevens. She has no problem letting Evan know he’s messing up. But it’s a different story for Olivia, who can only give her dad The Stare of silent accusation and to keep a tight grip on her little blue blanket (known as The Goo Gah). That’s causing an issue for Olivia’s teacher, who is trying not to make Olivia the exception when it comes to students being forbidden to bring personal items to school.

The issue for Evan is the blanket. Every attempt to separate Olivia from it brings on a high-pitched scream. And, then there are the imaginary friends she talks to in a loud whisper while she’s got the blanket pulled over her head. This “gets to” Evan, who confesses to Trish he thinks their kid is “intimidating.” And, it doesn’t help when Olivia extends her fixation on her make-believe world of princesses by saying the new man in Mom’s life “looks like Prince Charming.”

Evan’s difficulties with Olivia couldn’t be happening at a worse time. He’s got a rival at work who could scuttle his chances for a promotion. A rival who appears to be tapped into another dimension.

Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) has been snatching accounts out from under Evan’s nose with a dazzling display of what Evan would call a lot of hot air hooey laced with bogus Native American philosophy on the order of, “Sometimes the best spear is the one you don’t throw.” To some company CEO’s seeking guidance on where to invest their money, this is “fresh stuff.” To Evan it’s “Dr. Seuss meets Pocahontas” stuff. Evan needs a new spear, and he gets it, when he discovers that Olivia’s imaginary friends are not just princesses, but financial wizards who have uncannily accurate thumbs up, thumbs down royal decrees on companies Evan and Johnny are at odds over when it comes to recommendations for crucial clients.

Suddenly, there’s nothing more important to Evan than Olivia and her blankie; and if he has to spin around with the Goo Gah on his head, or sing like a frog to lull the princesses’ dragon to sleep, then he’ll do it. But, he’s made an enemy out of Johnny who isn’t sure whether Evan has “accessed a higher eye,” or is “buying the trout at the store” (his folksy analogy for insider trading).

The rivalry will culminate in a winner-take-all presentation for Dante D’Enzo (Martin Sheen), the Donald Trump-like boss of financial giant DDE.

Screenwriters Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson keep the story moving and focused: not giving into the imagined need to give Evan a love interest or Olivia a puppy to appeal to fan and parental expectations.

Church is flat-out hysterical with his shaman shenanigans and idiotic incantations. Best of all, is Murphy tapping into his experience of fatherhood to really connect with his young (and adorable) co-star; and, at one point making this reviewer see in Murphy more than a touch of Cary Grant.

A Paramount Pictures release, rated PG for mild language.

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