PLOT: A lonely American actor (Brendan Fraser) dwelling in Japan will get an uncommon job. He’s employed by an organization that gives “rental families” the place staff act as stand-ins for lacking or non-existent relations.
REVIEW: As gloomy as cinema’s general forecast has turn into over the previous couple of years, one of many good issues that truly occurred was that Brendan Fraser was in a position to launch a much-deserved, lengthy overdue comeback. Rental Household is a pleasant change of tempo from his more moderen, darkish turns, with it the sort of light, character-driven serio-comedy that was his forte in his heyday.
A sweet-natured film, Fraser performs an American expatriate dwelling in Japan, the place he’s achieved a modicum of fame as a result of he as soon as starred in a well-liked toothpaste business. Ten years later, the one roles he can get are as “sad American” in background spots. Nonetheless, his nationality makes him a distinct segment participant for a corporation referred to as “Rental Family”, run by Takehiro Hira’s Shinji, who provides stand-ins to quickly fill roles in folks’s lives. Quickly, Fraser’s Phillip turns into overwhelmingly common, however quickly he begins to wrestle with actual emotions of empathy and affection for his purchasers, who he begins to concern he’s exploiting.
It’s a mild car for Fraser, who’s expertly forged. Along with his huge eyes and pleasant face, Fraser radiates kindness, and it’s a deal with to see him gently combine himself into folks’s lives. He develops a specific affection for 2 purchasers, one being a younger woman named Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman) for whom he poses as her father on the behest of her mom, primarily to fill in for the absent father at college occasions. One other is Akira Emoto’s Kikuo, a retired actor. Phillip is employed by his kids to pose as an interviewer serious about his profession, because the outdated man believes he’s been forgotten.
Whereas each plots sound cliché and will lend themselves to a sappy melodrama, writer-director Hikari (who directed a number of episodes of Netflix’s Beef) by no means has any of the storylines go precisely the way in which you assume they are going to. The truth is, the film is much less within the particular person plots than it’s in what position “family” truly performs, and the way—in some instances—a surrogate and even imaginary household could be essential in its personal means, even whether it is simply ephemeral. It additionally takes an intriguing have a look at Japan’s stance on psychological well being points. As Hira’s Shinji tells Phillip, companies like theirs fill a necessity, as in search of psychological well being companies continues to be stigmatized, and an individual is extra prone to open up about their points with a stranger slightly than a psychiatrist. On the identical time, Phillip’s personal loneliness as each a middle-aged man and not using a household and a “Gai-jin” (foreigner) in Japan is explored, with him in search of his personal skilled resolution to his loneliness, albeit in his case with a pleasant prostitute.
Whereas most likely too low-key and minor to make a big effect on the field workplace or with critics, Rental Household continues to be a stunning film, with Fraser given a pleasant showcase as his profession as soon as once more begins to elevate off. It’s a unusual comedy-drama, however it additionally offers attention-grabbing perception into how loneliness isn’t unique to any explicit tradition, and that on the finish of the day folks the world over doubtless crave the identical issues—friendship and household.
