Here’s When and Where to Stream Rental Family, Brendan Fraser’s New Comedy-Drama
Fresh off his Oscar-winning resurgence in The Whale, Brendan Fraser returns with Rental Family, a comedy-drama that lit up TIFF 2025 with early raves — and fans are already counting down to its at-home release.
Brendan Fraser followed up The Whale with something very different: Rental Family, a comedy-drama that premiered at TIFF 2025, drew early praise, and is now quietly building word of mouth in theaters. If you want the what, why, and when-you-can-stream-it rundown, here we go.
Quick facts
- Now playing in US theaters; opened November 21, 2025
- Opening weekend: about $3.3M (per The Numbers)
- CinemaScore: A
- Director/writer: Hikari (Searchlight Pictures)
- Cast: Brendan Fraser, Paolo Andrea Di Pietro, Shinji Ozeki, Takao Kin; also features Mari Yamamoto
- Runtime: 1h 50m
- Early scores: IMDb 7.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes 88% (as of now)
- Debuted at TIFF 2025 and already has some awards-season buzz
So what is it actually about?
Fraser plays Phillip Vandarploeug, an American actor who has lived in Tokyo for seven years and still can’t land steady work. Desperate for cash, he signs on with a company called Rental Family Inc. The gig: step into real people’s lives and play whatever role they need.
That could mean being a grieving attendee at a funeral so the room doesn’t feel empty. It could be posing as someone’s best friend for a day. Or, tougher still, pretending to be a father for a young girl who needs that support. The job starts as performance and slides into something messier and more human, with Phillip forming real bonds he wasn’t expecting. It’s a smart setup for Fraser, who’s very good at playing guys whose hearts show through the cracks.
Yes, the premise comes from real life
Hikari based the film on services that actually exist in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, where people can hire a stand-in family member, partner, or friend. The short version: therapy is more accessible in the US; in Japan and some parts of Asia, getting help can be harder and heavily stigmatized, so these companies fill an emotional gap by giving people someone to talk to and lean on. It’s not drawn from one specific person’s story, but the industry is real — Fraser has pointed out that roughly 300 such businesses operate in Japan today, and variations have been around since the 1980s.
Where to watch Rental Family right now
It’s in theaters across the United States. If you want the big-screen version of Fraser’s latest, that’s your option today.
When will it stream?
There’s no streaming date yet, but this is a Searchlight Pictures release (owned by Disney), so the home for it will almost certainly be Hulu/Disney+ after theaters. Searchlight usually drops films on streaming roughly three months after the theatrical debut. Recent examples line up: A Complete Unknown opened December 25, 2024 and hit streaming March 27, 2025; A Real Pain went from November 1, 2024 to January 16, 2025; The Roses moved from August 29, 2025 to November 20, 2025. If Rental Family follows that pattern, look for it around February 2026.
It’s a wild-sounding concept until you realize it’s pulled straight from the real world — which, honestly, makes it hit harder. Did you know about these rental-companion services before this movie? Tell me in the comments.