Rental Family
Seven years after moving to Tokyo to star in a toothpaste commercial, Phillip Vandarpleog (Brendan Fraser) is taking any role he can get to stay afloat. He is quite shocked when he arrives at his latest job and discovers he's attending a wake. He's even more surprised when the departed sits up in his coffin, the man having given his ego a much needed boost by throwing his own funeral, eulogized by actors. At first Phillip has a hard time getting his head wrapped around the concept, but once he completes his next job marrying a young woman (Misato Morita) so she can escape to a better life with her female partner, Phillip becomes a valued member of Shinji Tada's (Takehiro Hira, TV's 'Shogun') "Rental Family."
Laura's Review: B-
The rental family business is a real thing in Japan, a way for people to deal with difficult emotions and loneliness in a country where there is a stigma about mental health therapy. The phenomenon has been made into a film before, but few have probably seen Werner Herzog's 2019 "Family Romance, LLC," which centers on a storyline also central to cowriter (with Stephen Blahut)/director Hikari's ("37 Seconds," TV's 'Beef') film, although she has made her protagonist an American to add a layer of cultural exchange as well as isolation, the filmmaker having experienced it as the lone Asian foreign exchange student in a Utah high school.
That second job of Phillip's is almost his undoing, the American so disturbed by essentially having to tell a lie that he balks at the last minute, his colleague Aiko (Mari Yamamoto, TV's 'Pachinko') cornering him in a hotel bathroom and angrily getting him to honor the assignment. After a beautiful wedding ceremony, Phillip realizes that while he's lied to Yoshiro's parents, he's enabled her the freedom to live the life she's chosen. Later, while canoodling with his regular call girl Keiko (Hideko Hara), the 'heart of gold' type, they will note that while she services people's physical needs, he's begun to attend to their emotional ones. After smoothing things over with the boss, Phillip dives into the job, but in his determination to help people, he begins to mix up fantasy with reality.
Hikari fleshes out Phillip's journey in a montage which shows him with various clients doing such things as playing video games and singing karaoke, but he has two main story strands. In the first, he is hired by a single mother (Shino Shinozaki) who requires a husband for an interview with the prestigious school she hopes to get her middle school daughter Mia (newcomer Shannon Gorman) into, but when 'Brian' and Mia grow too close, mom finding her daughter texting him, she ends the contract, devastating both her daughter and Phillip. In the second, he's hired by the daughter of famous actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto, "Shin Godzilla"), now elderly with a fading memory, to provide company and revisit his past as a 'journalist' named John, but when Kikuo begs him to travel to his hometown in southern Japan, something his daughter has forbidden, Phillip decides it is important enough to the old man to spring him from his home.
"Rental Family" is like one of those sentimental films Miramax specialized in in the 90's and your reaction to it may depend on how you feel about Brendan Fraser conveying emotion with his big, sad puppy eyes. In some ways, it's a perfect role for him, a big, embraceable lug his Japanese counterparts respond to, even Aiko's initial chill warming up considerably, but there is a saccharine quality to the film, one which is exacerbated by story choices that make little sense. If Mia is cut off from 'Brian' by her mother after their texting comes to light, why would an explanation of dad returning to the States stop that texting? Instead his leaving is presented as a complete break. Similarly, after 'John' experiences panic when Kikuo wanders off from a restaurant, why would he be so irresponsible as to take the man hundreds of miles from his home? The latter is the more serious issue and while it provides another reason for sentiment, it also presents another serious issue for Tada when Phillip is rightfully accused of kidnapping. Hikari finds solutions for both situations, the latter an amusing one involving Tada, Aiko and their colleague Kota (Bun Kimura, TV's 'Tokyo Vice') all taking on different personae, much to their own surprise, but she's compromised her protagonist's judgement beyond believability in an effort to add more sentiment.
But there is a flip side to "Rental Family," Aiko having to take on many roles as 'the other woman' in order to absorb the wrath of the wife when the husband tries to atone, situations that sometimes turn violent. And there is another side to Tada as well, a sad one which provides fresh insight into the man's character. Hikari resolves these issues as well, the Rental Family boss and his staff having become their own family by film's end.
Director of photography Takurô Ishizaka captures Hikari's characters in colorful, bustling Tokyo settings, Kikuo's journey lending natural scenery. "Rental Family" may lean a little too heavily into predictable sentiment, but it's heart is in the right place.
Robin's Review: B-
Phillip (Brendan Fraser) is an American actor struggling to find work in his chosen home, Japan. Money is tight and, out of great need, takes an acting job – at an agency placing stand-ins for families needing pretend relations in “Rental Family.”
Charming and sappy are two words that come to mind for sophomore feature director Hikari’s story of a stranger in a strange land. Phillip’s claim to acting fame is his role in a local commercial as the smiling face of a tube of tooth paste. Without much by way of prospects for an actual acting job, he is recruited by a rental family company.
On his first assignment, he attends a funeral as a mourner. As he watches the corpse, it lifts its head and looks around at the attendees. This is when Phillip learns that he is in a fantasy business where illusion is more important than reality. This “soft service” allows the client to feel a normalcy in life, even if it is bought and paid for.
Phillip takes on his different assignments and every one is a new experience. In one case, he acts as the best buddy to a reclusive game boy, socializing together and being best buds. Another job has him pretend to be the estranged father of a young girl, Mia (Shannon Gorman). And another has him pose as a journalist assigned to interview an aging filmmaker descending into dementia.
Brendan Fraser is the focus of the film with his clients and colleagues surrounding him. His soulful, droopy puppy eyes are used a time or two too many to show how compassionate – and confused – he can be. His “contract” with Mia’s mother (Shino Shinozaki) is to pretend to be the girl’s dad for three weeks to get her through the all-important school placement exam and interview. He is not ready for the welling of feelings inside as he gets to known the girl and her mom.
His relationship with the old moviemaker is more extended as Phillip, first, has to deal with the spurts of dementia as he goes through the “interview” process. The actor soon becomes a trusted companion and does his best to take care of his client. Things get pushed to the limit when the old filmmaker asks Phillip to take him on the long journey home. When he finally agrees, it set off warning bells in my head with the first thought being: kidnapping.
The fish-out-of-water aspect of Phillip’s story is not really explored, like why is he a struggling American actor eking out a career, of sorts, in a very foreign land? That did not make a lot of sense to me. Still, though sappy, “Rental Family” has its heart in the right place, just like one of my favorite films, “Local Hero (1982).”
Searchlight Pictures releases "Rental Family" in theaters on 11/21/25.
