The Reel Review
An American actor living in Tokyo discovers his purpose when he lands an unusual gig working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. By acting in various scenarios as a husband, a father, and a journalist, he finds himself forming genuine emotional bonds that blur the line between performance and reality. Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale) stars in this heartfelt tearjerker.
Working from a script she co-wrote with cinematographer/collaborator Stephen Blahut in his screenwriting debut and led by a perfectly cast Fraser as a lovable, doe-eyed puppy of a man, director Hikari (Beef, 37 Seconds) weaves a sweet, sad, and at times humorous tale about using pretense to create genuine emotions for lots of lonely people. The excellent ensemble cast includes Takehiro Hira (Shōgun) and Mari Yamamoto (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) as two rental family agency colleagues, veteran movie star Akira Emoto in his English-language debut as an aging actor, and Shannon Mahina Gorman in her acting debut as the young girl that Fraser’s character convinces into believing he is her father. Gorman is, in a word, incredible.
The predictable story also provides a nice snapshot of daily life in Japan, although it sometimes lingers a bit too long on certain plot points and misses a couple of opportunities to be both really moving and hilarious. But there are so many poignant moments in this feel-good dramedy that you won’t really mind. Bring tissues.
REEL FACTS
• Rental Family agencies first appeared in Japan in the early 1990s, to provide clients with actors to portray friends, family members or dates for social events such as weddings, over the years expanding to also help break the well-publicized social isolation phenomenon known as hikikomori.
• Rental Family co-writer/director Hikari’s big break was the 2019 film 37 Seconds, about a woman with cerebral palsy who tries to make her name in the Japanese manga comic industry.
• Japanese actress Mari Yamamoto is also a journalist, having written articles for The Daily Beast and having worked as a writer and producer for the HBO Max TV series Tokyo Vice.
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