Rental Family

What if Hirokazu Kore-eda directed an episode of The Rehearsal? On paper, this is what Rental Family brings to mind. Like the Japanese auteur’s brilliant After Life, or Nathan Fielder’s strange series, this Brendan Fraser-fronted film follows an acting troupe committed to helping people on a bigger scale through their craft. This particular company — one of hundreds that actually exist in Japan — hires out its employees to play a mourner at a faux funeral or, on the murkier side, a mistress who takes a verbal beating from a wronged wife.

“We sell emotion,” is owner Shinji’s (Takehiro Hira) pitch line. On their small roster, lonely Phillip is the token white American, tasked with becoming, among other parts, an overseas journalist interviewing retired actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), and the estranged father to young girl Mia (Shannon Gorman), whose mother is hoping to enrol her in an elite school.

Brendan Fraser's gentle physicality makes him at once playful and self-conscious.

The role fits Fraser like a bespoke suit. He plays Phillip with total openness, emotion and empathy ready to pour out of those large, clear, Oscar-winning eyes at any moment. His gentle physicality makes him at once playful and self-conscious, presenting as both assuring and someone who you want to assure. Importantly, he makes Phillip someone you’re reluctant to dislike, a vital quality given that his job is, on a fundamental level, to deceive.

Director Hikari doesn’t swerve away from the hurt that the agency is capable of causing. Yet she also doesn’t push it further. There are moments where you can all but hear Phillip’s moral compass whirring in every direction, especially when it comes to the plucky young girl whose dad he’s pretending to be. But a twinkle or a tear from Fraser brings the story back to sunnier pastures, where the picturesque Japanese scenery and cultural marvels pave the way for the relationships he’s unable to resist striking up.

As those bonds deepen, Rental Family becomes increasingly sentimental, to the point of mawkishness. Its lead actor is able to ground the story to a degree, and we get shorter storylines about Phillip’s colleagues, including scorned-woman-for-hire Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), which offer more nuanced insight into a very real industry. But these are enveloped in the sugary coating of a film dedicated to showing the lightness of humanity without getting too bogged down in the dark, something that, as Fraser proved in The Whale, he is more than capable of navigating. It’s a pleasure to see him oscillate between different roles within the film, but there’s scope to go bolder. When it comes to the selling of emotions, Rental Family’s catalogue is pretty selective.