After living in Tokyo for seven years as a failing actor, an American named Phillip Vanderloeg (played by Brendan Fraser) unexpectedly finds himself meeting Shinji (played by Takehiro Hira), the owner of a company called Rental Family, which specialises in offering mock-up relationships for struggling individuals to act out requested scenarios.
While hesitant at first, Phillip gives the role of ‘’token white guy’’ a chance and winds up in a variety of situations, including interviewing a retired actor named Kikuo Hasegawa (played by Akira Emoto) and being the father of a young biracial girl named Mia (played by Shannon Mahina Gorman).
After growing to like these new relationships, Phillip starts to question certain choices made by the business and those he’s providing for, like why a fellow rental actor, Aiko (played by Mari Yamamoto) is forced to take part in several ‘’apology’’ services for cheating men, and why he needs to remain at arms-length from his clients despite it feeling antithetical to the entire concept. While it could cause chaos for the clients and the company, Phillip goes above-and-beyond to help out his clients and hopefully form a true connection with them.
Being an international co-production between the United States and Japan and distributed by Searchlight, RENTAL FAMILY is all sugar and sweetness with just enough poignant reality to balance itself out, with a picture that isn’t really daring and maybe could’ve put more into its screenplay to really dive into its subject matter, but nevertheless proves very satisfactory through strong direction which brings light and sombreness to an interesting real world profession, entrancing visuals and music, and extremely charming performances.
A rental family agency is a true profession in certain Asian countries like South Korea and China, but mainly Japan, and was conceived in the 1990s to offer a human connection to people at their wits end.
It wasn’t huge but was prolific and eye-catching enough that centering a film around the practice would be captivating, and RENTAL FAMILY does mostly take advantage of what such a unique job could provide. The movie is high on its emotions and is incredibly sentimental, providing unaware audiences with a passive look into the role’s intent and purpose, but doing so while peeling back the layers and exposing some of the messiness that comes with the job.
The film’s atmosphere is peaceful, laid-back and very heartfelt, which comes from the directing by Mitsuyo Miyazaki (otherwise known as Hikari) who previously rose to fame with her critically acclaimed 2019 drama, 37 Seconds, and she’s able to elegantly paint this very pleasant picture with enough doses of authentic charm and bittersweet reality to create a very believable but still engaging mood. The visuals and music are mystifying, the tone has a sense of comedic irony to it but doesn’t shy away from some heavier moments, and the characters are basic but are dripping with such likability that you enjoy the moments spent with them.
With that said, the script (written by Mitsuyo Miyazaki and Stephen Blahut) is sadly where things start to unravel, as while having a decent outline to follow with a string-of-events that have nice conclusions and remain engaging throughout, the film falls short of its true potential because its desire to run on its emotions sometimes prevents proper dissection and thorough analysis.
There’s a lot that could be explored with this profession and the personal dramas that do arise are compelling like faking a traditional marriage to hide being gay, pretending to be a father in order to sidestep an outdated educational system, or providing a friend to someone who’s felt left behind by the world, but while it addresses these problems, it doesn’t really explore them nor does it provide enough of a deep-dive on any of its characters to make this environment feel as realistic or nuanced as it could’ve felt. It isn’t enough to harshly wound the picture, but if the screenplay had a grittier counterbalance for the child-like innocence the film gives off, it’d be easier to call this film amazing.
Brendan Fraser truly was a great choice for this movie, as his natural warmhearted nature and general sense of likability that made audiences fall in love with him originally made him perfectly suited for this story about a struggling performer finding meaning in a role he initially views as disingenuous. Fraser really does a good job bringing a warm authenticity to this part, always coming across as uncertain about how to deal with the situation, but honest in his desire to make these people’s lives happier, and it’s a wonderful contrast from his latest dramatic work, which while perfectly serviceable, didn’t feel very natural to him.
While he’s the clear highlight, the rest of the cast is pretty good too, all bringing a sense of believable appeal and legitimacy without overshadowing the lead. Shannon Mahina Gorman plays the pretty standard role of a child trying to bond with who she believes to be her father, but comes across as genuine and works off her co-stars well (especially Fraser), and Akira Emoto is given the most prominent subplot regarding travelling to his old home before his age catches up with him, and the sorrow and seasoned wistfulness that comes from it is captured so naturally through his performance.
The other members of the agency are also very well acted, but the movie doesn’t utilise them as much as they should. Mari Yamamoto is given the most screen-time and has a great scene near the end where she stands up for herself while on a derogatory request, but isn’t given much purpose in the plot and feels incredibly secondary, Takehiro Hira should feel relevant given he’s in charge of the business and a last minute reveal showcasing how dependent he is on the job is quite memorable but he’s also strangely neglected, Kimura Bun is mainly just there for his very entertaining forced smile, and even Fraser feels like he’s a little skimped on development and backstory, so despite how charming everyone is, their roles feel pretty surface-level.
Tokyo is one of the most famous cities in the world, and movies have presented it with the expected level of glitz, sparkle and hustle to paint it as a bustling metropolitan you’d want to experience, and while RENTAL FAMILY has pieces of this with some shots of the towering skyscrapers and frequently crowded streets, the presentation is a lot more down-to-earth and natural, allowing its ambience, visuals and music to bring colour, warmth and quaintness to these very normal-looking areas, and it does this quite effectively.
The very cool and even child-like colour palette of the production design handled by Norihiro Isoda and Masako Takayama looks believable to the region but still has life to it and can still provide nice imagery (Fraser’s apartment looks and feels very dim and cramped to begin with, but over the course of the film becomes brighter and more spacious) and the cinematography by Takuro Ishizaki nicely offers moments of intimacy and quietness through steady medium shots and close ups, but can also escalate the presentation when a moment requires a prettier, larger or more creative look. The music by Alex Somers and Icelandic musician, Jónsi, is also incredibly good, with a hauntingly heavy yet strangely peaceful and morose sound that highlights the film’s slightly upsetting but otherwise uplifting spirit.
RENTAL FAMILY is a very pensive feature that comfortably and blissfully sails on its goodwill and charm rather than on any deep exploration of its topics, themes and even characters, and while it is a pity that a movie all about the human connection isn’t able to evoke that same kind of personal investment out of its own characters, it can at least say it’ll stay with the viewers after they’ve left. The very intimate, atmospheric and clean direction by Hikari, the extremely charismatic performances (especially from Brendan Fraser) and the entrancing visuals and music do a good job making up for some of the shortcomings in the screenplay and the logistics of the plot (so many characters should be imprisoned for their actions), but if there’s one thing this film can’t be faulted for, it’s for feeling inauthentic.
