“Rental Family” (2025) is about a down on his luck American actor, Phillip Vandarpleog (Brendan Fraser), who has lived in Japan for seven years. Playing dead end roles, he accepts a gig as a sad American and gets introduced to the concept of regular people hiring actors to play roles in their lives. Initially horrified at the concept, he starts working with the titular company and discovers that playing a father, husband, friend and journalist gives him emotional connections and an opportunity to live a life that he never had before, but when the jobs end, he is devastated and the impact on his clients could potentially be disastrous. Will he do more harm or good to himself and others?
To enjoy “Rental Family,” loving Fraser is a requirement because without moviegoers’ preexisting warm feelings towards him and parasocial investment in his career and personal well-being, you may be less invested in Phillip, an affable, expressive, but underwritten character. Because Fraser plays an actor, and that actor is mostly playing a role, not himself, it lends a vignette rhythm to the film that defies a deeper character study. If Fraser did not emit safe vibes, this concept could easily turn into a horror movie with a psychopath invading people’s lives and lying to them. It is an inherently disturbing concept, and when he interacts with clients who do not know that he is an actor, it is impossible to not think of the ethics involved and potential harm to both sides.
Shinji Tada (the distractingly attractive Takehiro Hira), the owner of Rental Family, Inc., and his other employees, the zealously devoted to her job Aiko Nakajima (Mari Yamamoto) and the underutilized Kota Nakano (Kimura Bun) do not get as much screen time. Hira and Yamamoto’s earnestness and enthusiasm are convincing about the need for such a service, but later snippets of their lives tell a different story though there are no in-depth details offered. Tada’s story is a bit predictable, but still wordlessly hammers home the innate sadness of his business. By mostly skirting the deeper, dangerous implications, director and cowriter Hikari veers wildly from the tenebrous and sticks to the heartwarming. It is implied that these colleagues, an informal acting troupe, are becoming their own family, but it is a last act scramble.
“Rental Family” is elevated from small screen status because of the strength of the actors and the visuals, specifically the way that the montages imply time that has passed. Otherwise every character warms up rather quickly to each other, which makes it smack of a Sunday night movie or a wholesome series called “Touched by an American.” Basically, Phillip is paid to have a life, and he becomes the audience surrogate to get a front row seat into the lives of various Japanese families whereas without his job, he has no real connections that are not monetary, so he is getting as much from the job as they are. Suicidal Daitoh (Sonoe Mizoguchi) is finally ready to embrace life after hiring Philip. Yoshie Ikeda (Misato Morita) wants to give her family a memory in exchange for freedom to live her life. A child, Mia Kawasaki (Shannon Gorman in her first onscreen acting role), finally finds a way to be whole and accepted in society. It was disappointing not to get more information about his male client (Kenta Imanishi), especially since he superficially had the most in common with Phillip. Aging actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) gets a chance to remember his past, and because Phillip is not supposed to reveal his identity, it abandons the possibility of Phillip also connecting on a professional level learning from a great thespian.
Mia and Kikuo’s stories feel like the real center of “Rental Family,” and Phillip just feels like a supporting character in their respective movies, which explains why it is easier to stomach the idea of a film set in Japan but without a Japanese protagonist. Philip exists for everyone else though it does introduce the tension of clients regretting hiring him when he gets too good at his job, and their loved ones prefer a stranger to their family. There are huge swaths where Phillip is not on screen in the second half, and it barely registers even when Phillip is in jeopardy. It is too absorbing to watch everyone else do their thing.
Mia’s story only alludes to general bullying, but as a biracial child in a country where mixing with Westerners is potentially still a stigma, she would face similar barriers that contribute to Phillip’s isolation. Hikari and cowriter Stephen Blahut, a cinematographer in his first time cowriting a feature, prioritize simple, solvable, individual problems and pull punches by not naming a systemic factor. By casting Fraser and creating a white protagonist, which is a solid way to ensure that Western audiences check out a film with subtitles, maybe they expected that people would draw that conclusion, but most Westerners are used to systems privileging them. The potential audience likely does not realize that in some cultures, Westerners belong to a lower caste. Hikari and Blahut may have too much faith in their audience. Gorman and Shino Shinozaki, who plays Hitomi Kawasaki, Mia’s mom, do some amazing sensitive work though I still want to call DCF.
Get the tissues out for Kikuo’s story. Hikari and Blahut must have went to the Steven Spielberg school of emotional manipulation. Emoto just steals every scene, and Kikuo’s bouts with dementia and wandering plus his knowledge and acceptance of losing every memory is devastating. His story arc is poignant and gives Hikari an opportunity to show every facet of Japanese society. “Rental Family” feels like a love letter to Japan and mostly unfolds in Tokyo expressing the energy and artificial symmetry of the bustling city. During their time together, Kikuo and Phillip take every form of transportation. Hikari prefers images of cities, especially apartment buildings as little boxes like television sets where anyone interested could watch people live. The twinkling lights of the city becomes magical. These images of residential windows and trains are reminiscent of “All of Us Strangers” (2023) or “Black Tea” (2024).
The dialogue can be heavy handed as each utterance explains the point of this story. Interacting with other people makes people feel seen and real. Acting and working with others is a way to become more than yourself and opens the door to an infinite number of ways to exist in the world. While all relationships end either because they have served their purpose or death, it does not mean that there will be no future relationships. Kikuo visits a Shinto temple and is the resident theologian who discusses God and describes Him as existing everywhere and in everyone. In the end, Phillip becomes willing to reconnect with God and goes to the same temple. He claps to call the deity to attention, purify the space, signal his presence to the deity, show unity of the human and divine and clear impurity for prayer. What does he find there? It is a full circle moment that explains how Phillip lands at the end of this journey.
To put in a simpler way, I’ll use the immortal words of entertainment reporter Steve Duffy’s father, Richard, “You are everything, and you can do anything you want.” Life, travel and jobs are more than ways to make a living, but ways to expand and connect in a meaningful way to others and thus yourself. While some may find “Rental Family” treacly, and television fare, others will walk away inspired.
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It is intriguing that this hired, fake father is more devoted to his fictional daughter and turns down opportunities to spend time with her considering the growing slate of films, “Sentimental Value” (2025), “Jay Kelly” (2025) and “Hamnet” (2025) that desperately make an excuse for exculpating fathers for ditching their families for their careers because of their contributions to the world.
