When Brendan Fraser won his Oscar in 2023 for his powerhouse performance in The Whale, many people wondered how he would possibly follow up a comeback film that was as darkly emotional as it was thoughtful. In one of his first roles post-Oscar win, Fraser leads a film that is just as emotional but with much more hope. In Rental Family, Fraser and company weave a story that spans families on the other side of the world and manages to stay just as grounded as ever. The film follows Phillip, a down-on-his-luck actor who has been living in Japan ever since winning a short-lived commercial role. Faced with constant rejection and loneliness, he decides to join a rental family company and play stand-in roles in other people’s lives. Featuring a cast and crew of Japanese and Americans alike, this movie showcases the deep-seated need for affection and acceptance present in all of us.
Rental Families and Found Families: Director Hikari makes this movie as worthwhile as it is because she understands precisely when to lean into cliches and use them to her advantage. Across cultures, audiences love seeing people overcome obstacles, learn from their mistakes, and declare their love. Rental Family’s main objective is not to subvert narrative expectations, but to deliver those welcome cathartic moments while remaining a unique piece of storytelling. Fraser’s Phillip is not a Gump-like character, merely going from family to family and passing along goodwill, unaware of its effect. In Rental Family, there is plenty of outright deception, the kind that makes you put your head in your hand and cringe. But somehow, Hikari is still able to take us to the finish line and come up with a story that forces us to confront our own biases about what it means to be a family. Rental Family welcomes cynics to question what makes a family. Does it really matter if it’s real, rented, or found?
Japan on Screen: While rental families are not often spotlit on screen, Japan is far from an outlier in the American imagination on screen. Unfortunately, it’s usually only used as a foil. The complexities of the culture are hardly ever dived into. Rental Family knows what it’s up against and puts the real Japan, not America’s idea of Japan, on screen. Whether using the vast Tokyo cityscape and crowds to illustrate Philip’s isolation or the serene nature of the Japanese countryside for meditations on life, it is clear that the main star of this film is the country itself. This is a fish-out-of-water story that really takes the time to understand its surroundings.
Show Don’t Tell: For all that this movie has going for it, however, there are still a few cliches that don’t land. Even though this is a universal story, one whose familiar beats audiences will welcome, Rental Family still feels the need to hold our hand through it all. Overuse of expositional dialogue threatens to crowd this story and kill some of its well-earned momentum. We don’t need to hear these people talk at length or declare quite clearly their own issues with intimacy and past failures. When Hikari remembers this is a visual medium, the movie soars.
Despite some stilted dialogue, it’s no wonder it's been a hit with audiences at festivals this season. It’s as funny as it is touching, and singular as it is crowd-pleasing!
