Rental Family (2025)

Rental Family was a mystery screening at my local cinema and these have generally been good and occasionally like this one, are films that I probably wouldn’t have seen. The thing that bothered me about this sowing was that four people walked out before we were even 25 minutes in. Thankfully six of us stayed until the end. The film sees Brendan Fraser playing Phillip who is an American living in Japan trying to get work as an actor and through his agent he becomes an extra at a pretend funeral and gets an offer to join an agency which provides services for people who want a particular type of person. Phillip is asked to be a groom at a wedding to please the parents of his ‘bride’. Once the ceremony is over it's revealed her true love is another woman. He is then asked to pretend to be the father of a little girl who doesn't know he is pretending. It is because the mother is trying to get her into a school. At the same time he is asked to be a journalist and interview a former actor/director who is suffering from dementia. 

The term fish out of water seems perfect to describe Phillip. Like Phillip with our Western sensibilities, the idea of pretending to such a degree seems dishonest  but as the film progresses those ‘concerns’ seem to disappear as it is a matter of whether you see them as dishonest if the people hiring them know that they are not genuine. By the film’s end the agency has become more honest and it seems like Phillip has unconsciously been a force for good change. 

The subplot with Mia and Phillip pretending to be Kevin works because of the relationship between the two.  Mia does come across a bit brat-like at first but soon warms to ‘Kevin’ and when the truth is revealed, you do end up feeling sorry for Mia and i thought that Shannon Marina Gorman did a very good job of making Mia seem like someone who has is the way she is for a very good reason and when she has her scene with Phillip at the end of the film it felt like a nice way to end that subplot.

Brendan Fraser is very good in this film. I think the last time I saw him in a film was back in 2023 in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ although ‘The Whale’ is the one that won him the Oscar and it feels like he is at his best when he is a flawed person because Fraser has such a charming personality that you want things to well for him and knowing that he had some bad years in his private life means that winning the Oscar was his way of showing him back on top and it allows him to take on roles like this that perhaps aren’t going to earn him the big bucks but at least show his acting warmth. I thought that Akira Emoto was the star of the film. The portion of the film where Phillip and Kikuo break out of his house to go on a journey to Kikuo’s house that he used to have when he was a young man  was so sweet and sad because Emoto’s performance was stunning.  It was such a risky and sweet thing for Phillip to do and out of the two subplots this was the more interesting.

I enjoyed this film. I can sort of understand why the four people walked out because it does take quite a long time to get going and if you're expecting an action packed thriller then you are going to be disappointed. I thought once it did get going then it did keep my attention. It did make me think about ‘Lost in Translation’ (in a good way). I thought Hikari directs the film with a lot of love and attention and it lets things play out in their own way and even though the film could have done with losing about 10 minutes or so the characters were all really interesting and showed their own flaws such as the owner of the agency Shinji who appears to have a wife and son but towards the end its revealed that they are ‘fake’ and this is when his character has a change of heart and becomes more likeable. I doubt that this film will be seen by many people because it has such a strange premise but if you do get the chance then its worth it for Brendan Fraser showing that he isn’t just going for the Marvel sized paychecks now he has an Oscar and it also worth seeing for Akira Emoto’s heartbreaking performance.