Rental Family

Amid the relentless hustle and bustle of modern Tokyo, Rental Family digs beyond the neon lights and overwhelming crowds with a nuanced tale of solitude and human connection.

This bilingual drama contrasts the city’s vibrant chaos with the isolation and anxiety of outsiders struggling to find their place in a foreign land, overcoming heavy-handed contrivances to find poignancy in characters coming together in unexpected and mutually therapeutic ways.

It follows Phillip (Brendan Fraser), an American actor whose career stalled, which led him to seek commercial work in Japan. Questioning his purpose and his future, he reluctantly accepts an offer from the manager (Takehiro Hira) of an agency that’s hired to dispatch performers to stand in for family members or role-play scenarios as actual people.

He’s skeptical at first about his ability to deliver tough news or become too attached. “I’m just an actor,” he reasons. “I don’t know how to help people.”

Phillip adapts to the chameleonic nature of his new role nicely while playing a fake journalist summoned to interview an aging and eccentric star (Akira Emoto). However, he struggles to refrain from overstepping his bounds when portraying the absentee American father of a preteen girl (Shannon Gorman) who becomes convinced that Phillip is her real dad.

Despite the awkwardness of his circumstances, Phillip balances his wide-eyed curiosity with a well-intentioned desire to brighten the outlook for people, including himself.

The film skillfully delves into the global gig economy, reflecting on how career anguish and socioeconomic strife intersects with cultural dislocation and personal healing. Along the way, it delicately confronts stigmas surrounding mental health.

Beneath the surface idiosyncrasies, the screenplay by Japanese filmmaker Hikari (37 Seconds) reconciles its tonal inconsistency and moral ambiguity with sincerity and compassion. Fraser (The Whale) adds depth with a richly textured performance that provides an emotional anchor yet remains appropriately understated.

Some subplots veer into sentimentality, and the narrative momentum wavers in the second half. Yet the story’s bittersweet humanity remains intact, grounding the film in real stakes that resonate beyond clichés.

A quiet meditation on resilience and connection, Rental Family depicts the value of discovery and fulfillment, and how empathy can eradicate cultural and geographic boundaries to bring us all closer together.

Rated PG-13, 103 minutes.