Film Review - Rental Family
Images courtesy of 20th Century Studios.
Sweet but not saccharin, Rental Family (2025) is a solid feel good film despite its slightly confused final message. Created by mononymous writer-director Hikari, the film follows Phillip, a struggling and directionless American actor living in Tokyo, who begins to find meaning after getting a job at an unusual Japanese agency.
Unlike his usual fair of toothpaste commercials, Phillip finds himself playing roles in people’s real lives: a false father for a child attempting to get into a selective private school, a hokey husband for a lesbian trying to hide her queerness from a conservative family, and an ersatz reporter protecting the ego of an aging actor, among others. Through this framing, Hikari explores the complexities of human relationships and connection.
The film, whilst not exactly cinematographically impressive, is nicely shot. The camera uses a gentle eye focusing on the softness of footfalls and the rattle of trains. A motif of particular note is the flowing linen temple curtains which appear multiple times throughout the film. This softened tone works well for the personal and vulnerable depiction of the film's characters. It also will, almost definitely, make you want to go on holiday in Japan.
Where Rental Family really shines is in the feature’s writing and performances. With the film's emotional subject matter, it would be easy to fall into melodrama. However a considered script and subtle performances side step this neatly. Brendan Fraser does well in his portrayal of the kind, if slightly oafish, Phillip. His, often gaping, watery blue eyes are totally believable for someone lost and just trying his best. Particular note should be made of Shannon Gorman’s performance of Mia, the child Phillip plays fake father to. Gorman puts in a surprisingly realistic showing for an actor of such a young age - it’s a skillful performance, without which the film would be missing a sizable portion of its heart.
The major issue with Rental Family comes with its final message. Throughout the film we are shown the importance of human connection, being so vital people are willing to pay for it. This human necessity clashes with the inherent dishonesty of the job that Phillip and his colleagues are doing. How can they truly connect with these people when their relationships are built on lies? The conclusion we seem to be coming to is that this kind of purchased connection is wrong and we should instead meet people on a genuine basis. Instead Rental Family leans too hard into its feel good genre, keeping the agency open at the conclusion of the film. Everyone is working happily as though the philosophical questioning in the rest of the film had never occurred.
While this dissonance does somewhat unbalance the landing of the film, Rental Family is overall an enjoyable experience, worthy of a watch.
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Rental Family is screening in cinemas from Boxing Day. For tickets and more info, click here.