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.

‘Rental Family’ is a whimsical film about an out-of-work American actor in Japan who stumbles into a job with a rental family agency, a business that hires people to play temporary roles in other people’s lives. In a culture where these services exist to help fill emotional or social gaps (standing in as relatives or friends for example), Phillip finds himself leveraging his acting skills but in roles where the consequences can be very real. Brendan Fraser plays Phillip, and he’s well cast, bringing a warmth and likeability to a role that depends on our empathy for his character.

Fraser delivers a sensitive, low-key performance, playing Phillip as affable and slightly adrift, someone clearly carrying his own loneliness even as he’s paid to ease it in others (the tonal opposite of his over the top Oscar winning performance in ‘The Whale‘. The film uses his status as an outsider to Japan to explore ideas of isolation and belonging, and how while they differ between cultures, there are many similarities as well. Having visited Japan before, I just loved the sense of place in ‘Rental Family’, with director Hikari showcasing her country on screen well.

The emotional core of the film centres on two roles Phillip takes on through the agency, one as a stand-in father figure to a young girl, and another as a “journalist” interviewing a retired actor, both of which begin as performances but gradually take on real emotional weight. The film is interested in the ethics of these arrangements, particularly the tension between the comfort Phillip provides and the fact that it’s all built on deception, a line that feels especially uneasy when children are involved. A darker film would have taken these stories in a different direction but Hikari is content for this to be fun and light, and to be honest, I was on board with that.

‘Rental Family’ undoubtedly leans into sentimentality and occasional melodrama, and your tolerance for those tones will likely determine how much it works for you. It sometimes pushes its emotional beats a little hard, but there’s enough sincerity at its core to carry it through. It’s a soft, thoughtful film about loneliness and connection, and while it may not challenge its own ideas as much as it could, it did move me, and made me more than a little nostalgic for our short time in Japan.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Hikari

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman and Akira Emoto 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14142060/