Rental Family Review: Brendan Fraser Lays Bare the High Cost of Belonging

Brendan Fraser has been on a roll since The Whale, and now he has gone and done something I did not expect: he is the lone American front-and-center in a Japanese drama from writer-director Hikari (37 Seconds), co-written with Stephen Blahut. The movie is called Rental Family, and the hook is irresistible.

The setup

Fraser plays Phillip Vandarploeug, an American actor adrift in Tokyo who stumbles into a very specific kind of gig: he gets hired by a company run by Shinji (Takehiro Hira, Shogun) that rents out performers to fill emotional gaps in people’s lives. Need a husband for a dinner, a son for a ceremony, a dad for school pickup? They will cast it. Phillip signs on, and the whole thing starts to mess with his head in ways he did not plan for.

Why this premise actually works

On paper, pretending to be someone’s family sounds like pure artifice. The movie’s trick is showing how counterfeit roles can spark real feelings. It sits right in that gray zone between truth and performance, and keeps poking at it: if you are paid to care, can the caring still be authentic? Hikari leans into universal stuff here — loneliness, the families we choose, and how acting (literally acting) can bridge isolation.

Two storylines that land

• Mia’s dad-for-hire: A mother brings in Phillip to be a stand-in father for her daughter, Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman). It is a direct hit on the ache of not having genuine, present parenting. Their bond becomes the film’s emotional core, and yes, you feel it. The wrap-up on this thread plays a bit safe — a rougher ending might have hit even harder — but the path getting there is honest enough that it still stings.
• The aging legend: Phillip is hired to pose as a journalist profiling Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto, Villain), an elderly actor slipping into memory loss. What starts as an assignment becomes a gentle walk through legacy and the need to be seen and remembered. Fraser and Emoto share quiet, clean beats that treat a life’s work with real respect — no melodrama, just grace.

The performances

Fraser keeps it low flame and human — no big, showy breakdowns. The movie does not need them. He lets the premise carry the weight, which makes the few emotional spikes hit harder. Takehiro Hira brings flinty authority and a hint of melancholy as the guy who runs this whole operation, and Mari Yamamoto (Tokyo Vice) is excellent as Aiko Nakajima, a colleague who understands the job’s moral knots better than Phillip does.

Execution over novelty

Is the arc a little familiar? Sure. The structure gives you what you expect. But the filmmaking is so steady and sincere that cynicism does not get much oxygen. Hikari trusts the camera, the actors, and the premise. That confidence pays off.

The craft that sneaks up on you

The score by Jónsi and Alex Somers (Lost & Found) wraps the movie in this soft, reflective haze without ever turning mushy. It is the element that lingers most. Case in point: at an 8 a.m. BFI London Film Festival screening late in the schedule — we are talking after eight days and more than 20 films worth of fatigue — the room stayed locked in. No nodding heads, just a lot of quiet crying.

The bottom line

Rental Family is a bittersweet, clear-eyed drama about the real feelings that can come out of fake arrangements. Predictable? At times. Effective? Very. Fraser’s restrained lead, the lived-in supporting work from the Japanese cast, and that enveloping score make it land. It is ultimately about one thing: the basic, stubborn human need to belong.

Release notes

Rental Family screened at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival and opens in theaters on November 21. The film is a Japanese production from Hikari, co-written with Stephen Blahut, with Fraser as the sole American presence in the ensemble. Searchlight Pictures is attached.