By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"RENTAL FAMILY" FINDS REAL EMOTION IN FAKE RELATIONSHIPS
With the drama
"Rental Family," Brendan Fraser has found another role to embrace, one that is as earnest and quietly affecting as his Oscar-winning turn in "The Whale."
"Rental Family," from director
Hikari (TV's "Beef") and screenwriter
Stephen Blahut, is a film about reconnecting, purpose, and facing one's fears.
In the movie, Fraser plays Philip Vandarploeug, an American actor living in Japan who hasn't had much luck with his career there either, unless you count the kid-friendly superhero toothpaste commercial that earned him some odd pockets of notoriety. As Philip knows all too well, you take whatever jobs you can get when you're an actor trying to make rent.
When Philip meets Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hira, "Tornado"), the owner of a "rental family" service, he's offered a surprisingly promising gig, mostly because Shinji needs a "token white guy" to fill certain client requests. These range from hanging out with a lonely, nerdy gamer to posing as the groom in a fake wedding ceremony designed to appease a young woman's demanding parents.
Philip is hesitant at first because none of it feels quite right to him. But Shinji insists he is a natural and will pick up the art of role-playing soon enough. And while Philip does eventually settle into the routine, he quickly discovers that pretending to be someone else is far from the hardest part.
It's when he plays the father of an 11-year-old girl named Mia (Shannon Gorman in her debut role), whose real dad has abandoned her, that his life veers in a direction he never imagined.
What begins as a gig for quick cash turns into a genuine emotional situation that he isn't prepared to let go of. Mia and Philip's early interactions are awkward in a sweet, fumbling way. He is painfully aware of how artificial the setup is, yet Mia clings to him with a sincerity that's hard to shake. The film plays these moments gently, never pushing the sentiment too hard.
As the boundaries between performance and reality blur, Philip is forced to confront parts of himself he's spent years avoiding, like his insecurity, his disappointments, and the family he has drifted away from.
Fraser delivers a beautifully grounded performance, capturing the angst between wanting to remain detached and slowly realizing he's in too deep. Mia's mother, also using the rental service to hold her fractured household together, becomes another unexpected anchor in Philip's life. Their scenes together illuminate the film's central question: how much of family is blood, and how much is simply showing up?
The filmmakers navigate the "rental family" concept with tenderness, highlighting Japan's real-life "family rental" industry without mocking or sensationalizing it. Instead, the film uses the premise to explore loneliness, cultural alienation, and the often-unspoken longing for relationships no matter how unconventional the origins are.
By the time Philip decides he wants to stay in Japan beyond the staged outings and scripted affection, we completely understand. His journey from reluctant actor-for-hire to someone who finally realizes the weight and privilege of being needed gives "Rental Family" its wings.
This is a gentle and heartwarming story about chosen bonds and the families we build when life kind of nudges us off script.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Check Out This Trailer For
"RENTAL FAMILY"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
