By Randal C. Hill
Here’s what you will not see if you go to a showing of “Rental Family”: CGI explosions. Bulked-up superheroes. Rampaging dinosaurs. Wanton killings. “Rental Family” is just a quiet little family drama, although one guaranteed to pull a few heartstrings.
This feature affords Brendan Fraser a chance to show us a refreshingly new character in the form of Phillip Vandarpleog, a lonely, down-on-his-luck American actor struggling to find roles in Japan.
When his agent finally tells Phillip of an available acting gig, Vandarpleog hurries to a Tokyo office, where he is told by the man behind a desk, “We sell emotion.”
“How?” Phillip asks.
“We play roles in the clients’ lives and help them connect to what’s missing,” is the explanation.
“I’m just an actor,” the American argues. “I don’t know how to help people.”
He is then told that the agency just actually needs a token White guy—and he’s it.
Phillip reluctantly agrees to stand in for some other people’s lives. However, as he learns from the experiences that follow, he’s much more than an actor performing a prescribed role. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, Vandarpleog finds himself unexpectedly forming bonds that will eventually blur the lines between performance and reality as he rediscovers his long-suppressed ability to interact with other people.
“Rental Family” is directed and co-written by USC-educated Hikari Miyazaki, an Osaka-born former actress who came to America at 17 as a foreign exchange student. Hikari (she goes only by her first name professionally) says of her project, “While it’s inspired by a real, and sometimes unusual, business in Japan, it’s ultimately about people longing for connection and discovering the meaning of true friendship in modern Tokyo.”
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There’s a growing buzz in Tinseltown that is putting forth Brendan Fraser’s name as a contender for a second Best Actor statue in time for the next Academy Awards ceremony. After winning that honor for 2023’s “The Whale,” Fraser could once again carry away the little golden guy, only this time for a movie that’s light years away from that downbeat release from two years ago.
“Rental Family” opens November 21. See it and love it.
