'Rental Family' Review

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Release Date: 11/21/25 [Cinemas]

Genre: Comedy. Drama.

MPAA: Rated PG13.

Distributor: Searchlight Pictures.

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The Verdict: A Must-See

We all see ourselves in different places, how we would be if we were actually in that kind of place in life, whether it be for better or for worse. However, where we want to be in contrast with the roles we find ourselves through life reflect our life story in one way or another. This is the backbone of Hikari’s Rental Family. The film follows Phillip, an American actor in Japan, who is trying to find a new sense of purpose in his work and when he finds himself employed by a small agency, he begins playing stand-in roles for strangers across the country. Though the film shows the many odd jobs this agency gives Phillip, the main clients the film follows are an aging actor who Phillip acts as a journalist for the actor to tell their life story to, and a family Phillip fills in as the patriarch in order for the daughter to get into a school her mother thinks would be good for her.

Brendan Fraser plays Phillip not only as he’s being employed by this agency, but as he’s feeling lost, lonely, and stagnant within his own acting career. When the agency, named Rental Family, employs him, Phillip is able to find connections in the roles that he’s assigned to. While Phillip flourishes in these connections, the film doesn’t wave away the moral and ethical complexities within these jobs. The daughter he’s acting as patriarch for is deceived into thinking Phillip is her actual father by her mother, who hired Phillip to act as her father. This is perhaps the most predictable and telegraphed plot thread of the film, but it never fails to deliver emotional prowess.  On the other side of the film is Phillip’s relationship with an aging actor who seems to not care so much if Phillip is lying or not, and it’s in this thread that director Hikari captures beautiful Japanese countryside in contrast to the man-made metropolis architecture that surrounds both of their lives. 

Fraser brings a sense of tenderness and comfort to a film set on examining our lives, the lives we want to live, and the lives we are destined to live. There’s a painful human edge brought out by Hikari’s feature asking us to look inside and outwards to the places in life we want to be and also where others want to be as well. It is perhaps a big and heavy pill to swallow, but director Hikari manages to delicately give us a multitude of answers without feeling so heavy handed and saccharine; the whole experience is quite emotional, somber and sweet.

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