Rental Family
Rental Family
Starring Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman
Directed by Hikari
Phillip Vanderploeg (Brendan Fraser) is a washed-up actor living in Japan and doing commercials and small films, but struggles to find work. Needing money, he takes a job given to him by Shinji (Takehiro Hira) who owns a company called Rental Family where people hire his actors to serve as stand-ins for people in their lives. Phillip doesn't really understand the assignment when he's hired by the company to play the fiancee to a woman who wants to have her parents believe she's marrying a man, and almost balks the day of the wedding until fellow employee Aiko (Mari Yamamoto) convinces him to go through with it, comforting him by saying while he's playing a part, he's doing some real good in the woman's life.
Phillip is then hired to do two different jobs. He plays the role of a journalist and interviews former acclaimed actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) who's suffering from dementia and is losing his memory, and being a long-estranged father to young Mia Kawasaki (Shannon Mahina Gorman), hired by her mother to serve as her father so she can get into a prestigious school. Phillip is torn between being an actor and his humanity, as he grows close to both Kikuo and Mia, finding it hard to maintain the facade and being objective when he's helping an elderly man at the end of his days and showing a young girl what being a father is all about.
I never knew this but in Japan they have companies that hire actors to serve as stand-ins for real people for different occasions - being a best friend, a mourner, a fiancee, a long-lost family member, and so on - in order to bring comfort and peace to the people who hire them. It feels disingenuous because essentially they're acting as someone important, but if it helps the people struggling with issues, then I guess it's a good thing - just not something I would ever think about doing. Making a film about this issue is also intriguing, as we see through both lenses how this helps and could also hurt people in unintentional ways, if the company is corrupt and does it for the wrong reasons.
Phillip at first is hesitant because he thinks its doing more harm than good, but when he sees how being a fake fiancee to a woman led to her being with her true love, he realizes the importance of the company. As someone who suffers from loneliness, he sees the need to be someone that others can depend and lean on, and dives head-first into the company's theme. He's the best friend of a shut-in who plays video games all the time. He acts as a journalist to document a dying man's last moments. He becomes a father figure to a girl who never met her real father. He offers a service to people who need it, but in doing so he becomes emotionally invested in them, leading his objectivity to go out the window in favor of being someone real in their lives, and in doing so threatens harm to them unintentionally.,
In the case of Kikuo Hasegawa (played beautifully by a soulful Akira Emoto), Phillip threatens his very life in favor of giving him what he really wants. He's dealing with dementia, but his memories are still mostly intact, and one involves visiting his old home, but is confined in his new home by his watchful daughter who worries if he leaves, he'll suffer an episode and die. Phillip is told not to interfere and adhere to the daughter's wishes, but his desire to see Kikuo fulfill his final wish is far too strong of a pull.
With Mia Kawasaki (a dazzling performance by young newcomer Shannon Mahina Gorman), Phillip's role is to be her long-estranged father and just exist so she can get into the fancy school her mother wants her to get into. Phillip is hired by the mother and is told that he has to play the role, and never reveal who he really is, but as he himself deals with not knowing his own daughter, he becomes closely drawn to Mia, even texting her and calling her unprovoked, which angers her mother because she worries Mia will grow too attached to Phillip and knows that he'll eventually leave. Again, while Phillip is doing something good in his eyes, it causes unintentional issues - because, as we all know with these types of movies, secrets never stay secret.
"Rental Family" also delves into the lives of the owner and employees as well, giving everyone a fully flushed out story. The rental family company is led by Shinji, who himself struggles with loneliness and offers a different service known as "apology services" that is almost an offshoot of his company where his employees are brought in to serve as the adulterous woman in a relationship where the man wants to end it. While Phillip gets to enjoy being someone important in the lives of the people who hire them, Aiko has to play the other woman and deals with jilted women and abusive men. Mari Yamamoto gives a nuanced performance as she struggles with what she does against the greater good, while Takehiro Hira's Shinji is a near-villain who sometimes abuses his employees in the roles they take, but is himself a broken man so you understand where he's coming from.
Yet it's Brendan Fraser who stands head and shoulders above the rest (pretty much literally) as he utilizes his effortless charm to full effect. Fraser is one of Hollywood's most beloved actors, a man who was at once the top of his game but through tragic circumstances found himself at the bottom, only to rise again as a now-Academy Award winner with "The Whale." Watching this film it seems that Fraser really isn't acting, but projecting himself in Phillip's world as a man who wants to make other peoples' lives better. It's a role he was destined to play, because it's deep within his wheelhouse and you feel the emotional connection between actor and character deeply and naturally, giving an emotional story that'll uplift your spirits and make you feel better about the world around you.
The Score: A
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