RentalFamily

Plot Summary

An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. He rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the beauty of human connection.
(from IMDb)

Film Review

It’s nice to see Brendan Fraser making movies again. As some have called it, we’re living in a “Brendanassaince” with his renewed popularity – especially after he won an Oscar for Best Actor. It’s funny, because although I love seeing him in 90’s movies like The Mummy and Blast from the Past, I’ve never seen him as “Best Actor” material. But, in his upper 50’s now, Brendan is becoming known for being a dramatic actor – and I couldn’t be happier for him.

This year, Fraser stars in Rental Family, an “adaptation” of a 2015 Japanese anthology film. Directed by Hikari (Beef), the film centers around an American actor living in Japan who ends up working for an agency that rents out actors to play special, very specific roles in people’s lives – like a father, wife, groom, friend, or even a mistress. Fraser plays Phillip Vanderploeg, this aging, lonely American actor, with charm and heart. It definitely doesn’t hurt to see someone as much of a big-teddy-bear, as Fraser has become, in a role like this. The film is first and foremost a drama. It has some humor, but most of it is the chuckle kind – not really the laugh-out-loud kind (except maybe one scene). For the most part, it simmers in its own dramatic situations, and you can kind of foresee the trouble these situations are going to cause. The biggest storyline is when Phillip is hired to play a child’s long lost father, named Kevin, so she can get into a strict, prestigious school. He’s introduced to little Mia, and after the girl instantly rejects him, he works at trying to bond with the child. The problem begins brewing when Phillip and Mia grow attached to each other. Phillip starts finding purpose in this new relationship… despite it just being a temporary gig.

Another situation finds Phillip pretending to be a reporter, named John, who interviews a formerly-famous film star who is now elderly and struggling with dementia. The job is intended to help the star feel important again, but it ends up sparking its own set of problems as Phillip and the old man become closer friends. While the Rental Family service clearly has good intentions, as the story progresses, it becomes more and more apparent just how tricky toying with people’s lives – and hearts – can be.

While the similarities may end with “forgotten actor feeling lost in Japan,” I couldn’t help but think of Bill Murray’s Lost in Translation while watching Rental Family (a film that could have easily been PG-13, if a brief strip club scene had been omitted). Fraser’s performance is less hopeless than Murray’s, but the idea of finding connection and purpose while feeling completely out of place in life – literally and figuratively – is a shared theme between the two. The supporting Japanese cast is also wonderful in Rental Family. Scarlett Johansson played Murray’s closest companion in Lost in Translation, but here, Fraser stays the lone American, interacting with Takehiro Hira, Shannon Mahina Gorman, and Mari Yamamoto, who are all absolutely wonderful in the film.

Honestly, in some ways, I feel like Rental Family just barely got by with the PG-13 rating. Fraser exclaims a semi-incomplete “Oh f—” early on in the film, when startled, and later says it fully during a desperate situation. There’s a little bit of other language – some spoken in English, some in Japanese and shown in English subtitles, but the rest of the sensitive content is moreso sexual in nature. We see Phillip in bed with a prostitute after the act, and when her timer goes off, he laments, to which she offers to stay with him for a few more minutes (and specifies that it’s free). Later, we see the two briefly in a sudsy bathtub together, sitting across from each other. Another scene shows Phillip accompanying a client to a strip club. The dancer is “fully dressed” in a provocative outfit, and when she spreads her legs, an audience member’s head in the foreground blocks any apparent nudity. (The crowd cheers at what we do not see.) There’s also a recurring theme that a man cheating on his wife can hire a woman from Rental Family to pretend to be the mistress in order to apologize to his wife (and one instance has the offended wife slapping the actress posing as the mistress). Finally, Phillip is hired to play a young woman’s groom in a wedding so her parents can believe she married a man and moved away. We then see, after the wedding, a woman come into a hotel room where the bride and groom are and begin kissing the bride passionately — revealing that the bride is a lesbian and is secretly eloping and running away with her. The film’s themes address death, loss, love, single parenthood, adultery, loneliness, etc. It’s a heavy, dramatic film, and one that definitely will be sensitive to some viewers (and it’s definitely not one for the whole family).

Despite its thematic weight, Rental Family remains a beautiful, painfully human film. While I found it a bit on the heavy side for me, my wife absolutely loved it, calling it one of her new favorite movies. (It certainly doesn’t hurt that it has a nice, emotional and dreamy score performed by Jonsi and Alex Somers.) Rental Family is a solid, well-acted, emotional drama that fans of Fraser or any of the cast are sure to enjoy… just make sure you bring tissues.

– John DiBiase (reviewed: 12/7/25)

 

 

iTunes / Digital Copy Bonus Features Review

Rental Family is now available via digital retailers in 4K. It definitely looks really solid in 4K, but I was surprised by how dark it looks in some scenes. It’s clear, sure, but there isn’t a high contrast. It does still look good, though.

The Apple digital copy features the following extras:

Rental Family Revealed (10:35) – This is a nice little behind-the-scenes featurette on the film. It’s sadly a bit too brief, but it gives you a nice little overview into the meaning of the film and its creation. Director Hikari drew a lot, for the character of Phillip, from feeling lost in America when she had moved there. She wanted to bring that feeling of loneliness and isolation to Brendan’s American character in Japan. The featurette goes on to briefly highlight each main character and their actors (who we hear from) and we learn little things, like how Brendan had to study Japanese and take classes to appear more fluent in the language. Before it wraps, it also focuses on the film’s importance on color – like showing Phillip surrounded by blue lighting and coloring for the more lonely sequences.

Deleted / Extended Scenes – Play All (17:11) – This is a nice batch of deleted scenes. I feel like most of them would have fit nicely in the film to help flesh out some of the characters more – particularly Aiko, but I can also see why they might end up on the cutting room floor, so to speak.

Columbus (2:12) – This one shows Phillip being directed in the “Columbus” film we only see a clip of on Mia’s TV. Here, the director asks him to be more energetic and over-the-top with his performance.

Crying Session (2:30) – Shinji and Phillip sit in a room watching women sitting quietly and crying. Phillip observes a man go over to one of the women and offering to dry her eyes for her. Shinji motions for Phillip to do the same, but it doesn’t go over quite as well. When Phillip expresses confusion over this whole experience, Shinji explains that it’s easier for some people to grieve in the presence of others than it is to grieve alone. It’s a tender scene, but I see why it was cut.

Apology (0:41) – At the wedding Phillip is hired for, he runs over and tries to apologize to Aiko for having panicked earlier, and she tells him to quit.

Aiko’s First Client (2:33) – This scene absolutely should have stayed in. While Aiko and Phillip sit at a bar together, he asks why she does this job. Her answer differs from the finished film. Here, she shares about how a woman hired her to play her daughter. She then tells Phillip that sometimes we just need someone to remind us we exist.

Clearbright (1:22) – Here we see Phillip being directed in the Japanese toothpaste commercial.

Tickets (1:08) – Here, Aiko hands out tickets to a show of some kind, but doesn’t stay for it.

Audition (2:38) – I’m not quite sure where this was supposed to fit into the story (maybe near the end?), but Aiko tells Phillip she wishes she could hire someone to play herself. She then talks about going to an audition for a part and being told by the producers to disrobe to prove she’s “passionate about the role” and she explains that she “froze.” Phillip then helps her say what she wishes she could tell herself.

Phone Call (3:21) – Here, Brendan – as Phillip – sits on the balcony of his apartment and there are no effects for the area around Brendan, just green screen. Phillip listens to a voicemail from his father and then completely breaks down crying. His neighbor across the street at the other apartment building yells over and asks if he’s okay, and they exchange a greeting.

Final Montage (0:49) – This is a brief montage showing what Aiko and Shinji are doing at the end of the film. For Aiko, she’s shown directing a play. We then see Shinji apparently meeting with his real son in a cafe, after a long time of having not seen each other. (1 “Oh G-d” in subtitles)

– John DiBiase, (reviewed: 1/14/26)

 

Parental Guide: Content Summary

 Sex/Nudity: Phillip poses as a woman’s groom so she can make her parents believe she married a man and can move out of Japan. We see Phillip and the bride sitting on hotel room bed when there’s a knock at the door. Phillip answers it and a woman walks in and starts kissing the bride on the lips. It’s then we realize the marriage was a scam so she can run away with her girlfriend without her parents knowing she’s gay; Phillip is seen in bed with a prostitute after sex. She’s lying on top of his bare chest (she’s in a nightie) and they’re seen just talking. When her timer goes off, he complains that it’s over already and she says she’ll give him 10 minutes for free; During a montage, we see Phillip and the same prositute in a suds-covered bath together; Phillip runs into the woman at a carnival while with Mia. Mia asks if she worked with Phillip and the prostitute jokes that she worked in “customer service”; During a montage, we see Phillip at a performance with a woman dancing on stage. She’s dressed, but as she spreads her legs, with the stage turning, things in the foreground block the view between her legs (it’s assumed she’s a stripper); One of the Rental Family women often poses as a cheating husband’s mistress so she can “apologize” to the wronged wife. In one scene, she’s slapped in the face by the wife. In the second instance, she tells the wife she didn’t sleep with her husband and that the man doesn’t have the “b*lls” to bring the real mistress to her.

 Vulgarity/Language: 1 “F” word, 1 incomplete “F” word; 3 spoken “S” words, 3 “S” words in subtitles, 1 “g*dd*mn” in subtitles, 1 “d*mnit,” 1 “balls” in subtitles

 Alcohol/Drugs: Phillip has a beer at home while window watching; Phillip drinks in a bar a couple times; Phillip and a bride drink saki at the wedding; Shinji is offered a beer when he gets home from work and he accepts.

 Blood/Gore: A woman has an abrasion on her cheek after being slapped.

 Violence: A woman pretending to be a mistress is slapped by the man’s wife; A man kicks another man while he’s groveling on the floor; An old man losing his memory wanders into a street and is almost hit by a car; Phillip finds an old man collapsed on the ground.

 

Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer’s opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer’s overall rating.

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