Rental Family Movie Review

Rental Family (2025)

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Written by: Hikari & Stephen Blahut (screenplay)
Directed by: Hikari
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find work lands an unusual gig, working for a Japanese "rental family" agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. He rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the beauty of human connection.

Verdict
This is a touching story about loneliness and the need to connect. It's not surprising that a service exists to provide people for events, milestones, and companionship. A struggling American actor finds what he was missing while in Japan by working for this company, but unfortunately relationships where one person is paid are unsustainable. The line of pretending for a job and being genuine soon blur, but that doesn't stop feelings being hurt. As a parallel, even he is using one of the oldest services to provide companionship.
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Review
Phillip (Brendan Fraser) is an American actor in Tokyo looking for work. His burgeoning career never quite took off. Even beyond the cultural difference, he doesn't fit in. He gets a job to play a "sad American" at a funeral, but he's late and disruptive. He's shocked to realize the deceased isn't dead. This was a special performance.

Phillip is approached by the owner of Rental Family who wants to contract him as their token white guy to fill various roles. The company's clients stage fake events to create an experience. Sometimes they hire actors to avoid a harsh truth. If you're lonely, you can just hire some to play a part in an effort to make your life more complete.

Brendan Fraser plays Phillip

Phillip's first gig is playing a husband in a fake wedding for a woman whose family doesn't accept her partner. He's the one that gets cold feet, hesitant to intervene in people's lives. At the end of the event, he realizes this was the only way for the woman to please her family while avoiding their rejection of her and her partner.

For an actor, this really is the role of a lifetime. The stakes are high, and there are no second takes. Phillip doesn't like messing with people's live, but he's been struggling for work and needs the job.

His next role as a father is challenging as he's playing a deadbeat that has returned years later after abandoning his family. The mother thinks that having both parents will help her daughter Mia get into a private school. Phillip grows closer to Mia, there's no way he wouldn't. He gets an offer for a television show, and he passes so he can continue playing dad.

At the beginning of the movie Phillip would look out the window of his apartment seeing neighbors and feel lonely. They had friends and a family, something he lacked. With this acting job, he has a connection to people even if it's a relationship built on false pretenses. When his role ends, after Mia gets in the school, Phillip doesn't want to stop. He cares for his clients, seeing them as family.

Brendan Fraser, Shino Shinozaki play Phillip, Hitomi

Now lacking a connection, Phillip continues a job that has ended, accompanying former actor Kikuo on a visit to his hometown. The problem is that the man's daughter that hired Phillip had already forbade it.

The whole endeavor crumbles. The company was messing with people's emotions, but it would have stumbled much earlier with the nature of the business. It's too easy to get attached. That happened to Phillip from the very beginning. But it's also easy to believe a service like this could exist. People are lonely and want a connection. As the world has become bigger and more connected, individual communities have become smaller. This movie explores the need for connection. Even Phillip hired a professional with which to spend time, paralleling her job and his. With a prostitute, there's no illusion about the personal and professional boundaries. When that line blurs is when people get hurt.

While Phillip gets in trouble, the other employees of the company rally to exonerate him. Changes are made at the company, but it wouldn't prevent what happened with Phillip getting too close. The company provides a service people obviously want, but the instances we saw was one person buying the service for someone else. That's when the morality blurs; when someone is unaware of the circumstances and the inherent deceit. Fixing that, this isn't any different that Phillip hiring a companion.

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