Rental family is exactly what you think it’s about.
Brendan Fraser plays an American actor who finds himself working for an agency that rents people out to cover gaps in real life relationships. From fathers and funeral attendees to stand-in mistresses and gaming buddies, the agency specialises in peddling emotional fulfilment.
You might think the concept is ludicrous but such services do exist in Japan.
Japan is in the grips of a loneliness epidemic. A quick search on Instagram brings up reels of people renting old men to be a proxy dads/granddads in Japan. On a grim note, there are elderly women deliberately committing crime to find companionship and healthcare in prison.
Knowing this, I was expecting a sombre tale.
Instead, director Hikari weaves a tale of earnest intentions, human connections, cultural insights and micro rebellions.
Fraser plays the well-meaning yet somewhat naive Phillip Vanderploeg perfectly.
Despite having moved to Japan seven years ago to pursue acting gigs, he leads a mostly solitary existence. Even though he seems at ease with living in Japan, he is horrendously naive when it comes to Japanese society.
We see it in his nearly disastrous first official gig – from casting doubt on the client to barricading himself in a toilet and nearly backing out. He just doesn’t get it, his American upbringing can’t fathom the rationale.
But then when it is all over, a single moment with his client makes his heart bloom.
His character continues blossoming, letting his intuition take the lead.
But connection isn’t a one way transaction.
Rental Family slowly unveils how human connection is a domino effect that ripples outwards. Fraser skilfully massages Vanderploeg from his gawky, unwitting origins to be the rental “token white guy” that everyone needs. And somehow, during this transformation, Vanderploeg manages to impact everyone in his orbit.
This includes Kikuo Hasegawa, an elderly thesipan who has early onset dementia. Legendary Japanese actor, Akira Emoto, delivers the movie’s most complex character.
Hasegawa’s character is defined by pride. Pride in his work, his daughter’s pride in his reputation (which she aggressively protects) and stubborn pride that refuses to be bridled by the confines of cognitive degeneration.
Emoto deftly embodies these various manifestations of pride and packages it into a stoic figure, with a classic Japanese stiff upper lip. When his character allows himself the luxury of emotions, they hit the audience especially hard.
Couple Emoto’s performance with Fraser’s and you’ll find yourself engrossed in watching their symbiotic relationship develop.
We know Fraser has depth, he won the Oscar for The Whale, after all. But we also know that he is a good guy at heart who doesn’t mind being goofy – remember Encino Man and George of the Jungle?
This breadth of experience is exactly why he’s the perfect fit for Rental Family. He gamely takes on cringey Japanese advertisements in one moment and is a solid rock of support the next.
The Whale might have shaken the world out of its stupor, where Fraser is concerned. But Rental Family will endear him to audiences, if they’re not already cheerleaders for his resurgence.
While I struggle to imagine anyone else taking on Vanderploeg’s role, Rental Family is a magnetic watch on its own merits.
It is a charming explainer of Japan’s loneliness epidemic. Rental Family takes it beyond the “overworked and overstressed” trope and highlights the nuances that make it easy for non-Japanese viewers to understand the predicaments the agency’s clients find themselves in.
The movie is set in Japan but does not overplay the stereotypes of Japanese culture. Yes, we see the quirkiness but it adds richness instead of distracting us from the characters.
On the flipside, Hikari has chosen to have her Japanese characters speak predominantly Japanese and made Vanderploeg semi-fluent in the language.
Consequently, rather than a spectacle, Rental Family feels like an authentic exploration of human connection within a Japanese context.
Rental Family is a must watch. It is not typical Christmas fare but it is fitting for a season when human bonds are cherished and celebrated.
Rental Family opens in cinemas on Boxing Day but Luna Palace Cinemas is offering a sneak peek session prior to that.