MOVIE OF THE WEEK November 21, 2025: RENTAL FAMILY
The power of human connection is the underlying theme of Japanese writer/director Hikari’s sweetly poignant dramedy Rental Family. Starring Brendan Fraser as a struggling, middle-aged American actor who’s become isolated while hustling for work in Tokyo and ends up taking an unusual (but based in fact!) job to help make ends meet, the film is a timely reminder that we’re all more likely to thrive when we feel seen, heard, and valued by our fellow humans.
Phillip Vandarpleog (Fraser) lives alone in a small apartment, going to as many auditions as he can in hopes of scoring a substantial part — but his hopes aren’t what they used to be. Not in any position to turn down work, he agrees to a last-minute gig and finds himself one of many hired mourners at a faux funeral. Phillip doesn’t understand what on earth is going on until Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hira), the owner of the business Rental Family, explains it to him: His company’s clients are people who find themselves in need of extra support for various life events and situations, and Tada and his employees provide it to them.
Phillip isn’t sure whether working for Rental Family is right for him, but he doesn’t have anything else lined up, so he decides to give it a try and quickly finds himself deployed as a groom, a video game buddy, and more. The assignments give him purpose, and he starts to really feel engaged in life again. But it’s not until Phillip is booked as a stand-in dad for young Mia (Shannon Gorman) and as a would-be journalist interviewing legendary retired actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) that the dangers — or are they blessings? — of his new job really become apparent. Meanwhile, Tada and his other employees, especially Aiko Nakajima (Mari Yamamoto), wrestle with their own lives and feelings.
Hikari — who co-wrote the lovely, emotional script with Stephen Blahut — fills Rental Family with moments of simple joy based in the way it feels to have someone pay attention to you and genuinely look forward to spending time with you. And Fraser, with his resting hopeful-hangdog face, is perfectly cast as Phillip, who isn’t cynical but also isn’t particularly hopeful when the movie opens. He’s just existing, going from one thing to the other because he’s supposed to. But when he opens himself up to his fellow humans and lets himself connect with them, he remembers what it’s like to really live. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Nell Minow: Rental Family is a story about fake relationships that shows us how one of our defining qualities as a species is the way we cannot help but make real-life connections, as imperfect and frustrating and painful as they can be. Brendan Fraser gives a performance of deep humanity as an American in Japan who goes from distancing himself from others to being paid to pretend to be someone’s relative to accessing feelings that were all but vestigial. Hikari has made one of the most endearing and heartwarming films of the year.
Sherin Nicole In each vignette, director Hikari and her co-writer, Stephen Blahut, focus on the heart of humanity and who we are by exploring the loneliness that draws us together—seeking connection. In my favorite set of scenes, when Philip (Brendan Fraser) looks out at the people in other apartments across from his, it feels like he’s seeing a mini-multiverse, and he’s imagining how he might fit into each of those worlds. It’s cleverly communicative filmmaking, a symbolic way of alleviating isolation. All of those “boxes” contain different lives, and through the Rental Family service, many lives are tied together. Read full review.
Leslie Combemale Rental Family has the kind of gentle, consistent tone that teeters between sweet and bittersweet, and it is Brendan Fraser’s heartfelt performance, and his work with key co-stars, that keeps that balance. Director/screen-writer Hikari and co-screenwriter Stephen Blahut know their way around a character arc, building a story centered on the struggle with loneliness and the need for connection that leads to catharsis for the audience without getting sentimental or maudlin. Read full review.
Jennifer Merin Rental Family is an endearing drama from Japanese filmmaker Hikari. Set in Tokyo, the film centers on an American ex-pat actor (Brendan Fraser) who takes a job with an agency that rents family members to lonely, needy citizens (yes, apparently these agencies really dp exist in Japan) to supplement his income. He gets hired to play ‘Daddy’ to a little girl whose divorced Mom wants her to have a father figure. Plot twists and problems arrive when fake ‘Daddy’ and the little girl become genuinely attached to each other. The story is richly rewarding, the charcters are engagingly complex and the film is beautifully crafted.
Sandie Angulo Chen: Inspired by the real and quietly astonishing phenomenon in Japan in which people hire people to fill emotional or social roles, Rental Family is a beautifully acted, deeply humane drama that lingers long after its final scene. The film follows Brendan Fraser as a middle-aged American actor based in Tokyo who takes a job with an agency offering “stand-ins” for everything from casual companionship to ethically murkier requests like posing as a child’s father for a school interview or playing the contrite mistress so a client can stage an apology. Director Hikari treats each scenario with nuance rather than judgment, emphasizing how loneliness, shame, and filial obligation can push people toward the rental practice. The supporting ensemble is superb, particularly veteran Japanese actor Akira Emoto, who gives a soulful, understated performance as a once-famous actor experiencing cognitive decline.
Loren King Brendan Fraser has chosen a surprising and sweet family film as his follow up to his best actor Oscar winner The Whale, one that underscores his empathy and low key charm. He stars in Rental Family as Phillip, a journeyman American actor living in Tokyo as he struggles to get cast in decent roles. He takes a job with an agency that supplies “actors” as substitute family members, a cultural practice with obvious boundary blurring implications especially for a lonely guy as good hearted as Phillip. Not only does Fraser speak Japanese in this Japan-centric story, his soulful eyes and hangdog demeanor beautifully capture Phillip’s range of emotions as he tries to understand this strange Japanese custom and follow the agency’s advice to remain detached. But Phillip actually likes the clients he’s working for, particularly an 11 year-old who thinks he’s her long absent father and an aging, legendary Japanese actor whose daughter wants him to feel relevant so hires Phillip to pretend he’s an admiring journalist. Japanese filmmaker Hikari effectively mines this unusual subject matter for both comedy and drama while deftly balancing the sometimes sticky themes of how pretense and performance ultimately lead to unmasking and connection. Even if you know this is where the plot is headed, Fraser’s sincere and touching portrayal of a man who is gradually revealed to himself will still tug the heart.
Liz Whittemore Japanese filmmaker Hikari presents a moving drama in Family Rental. The film follows a struggling American actor who takes a side job with a unique agency, portraying absent family members. Phillip exceeds expectations, meeting his clients’ emotional needs and finding his own healing. Cinematographer Takuro Ishizaka creates an ode to Japan, utilizing architecture to craft beautifully framed vignettes of happiness. Fraser’s towering stature makes for an amusing visual at first glance. Effortlessly charming, Fraser strikes a balance between being an outsider and offering complete vulnerability to create thoughtful authenticity. He is magnificent. Embracing illusion as a subconscious therapy, agencies like the one Phillip works for actually exist. This is role play to an extreme. Hikari gives viewers a cultural crash course and a meditative catharsis in human connection. It is impossible to exit this film unchanged.
Cate Marquis Brendan Fraser gives a touching performance in Rental Family as an out-of-work American actor in Tokyo who takes a job with a company that provides its customers with people to play roles in their lives, such as a mourner at a funeral, or even impersonate someone. As odd as it seems, this kind of service actually exists in Japan. The actor is hesitant at first but is persuaded to take the job when the business owner points out that it is still acting, like improv, and that the service is helping people. Some of the assignments are short-term, but others are longer. In one such case, a single mother hires the actor to impersonate the American father her young daughter never met, in order to help her gifted daughter get into an exclusive school. In another, the daughter of an older Japanese movie star, who hires the American to play a journalist who has come to interview the once-famous, aged actor, who fears he has been forgotten. The one rule in the work is not to get too involved, which Fraser’s big-hearted character struggles with that at times. This charming, beautifully-shot drama, partly in English and partly in Japanese with subtitles, is mostly sweet, warm and sometimes even comic, but it also has some surprising, and even unsettling, food-for-thought moments, as well as offering reflections on identity, human connections and role-playing in our own lives.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Rental Family
Director: Hikari
Release Date: November 21, 2025
Running Time: 1-3 minutes
Language: English and Japanese with Engligh subtitles
Screenwriters: Hikari, Stephan Blahut
Lead Performers: Brendan Fraser
Distribution Company: Searchlight
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
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Edited by Jennifer Merin
