Brendan Fraser seen as bland lead in Hikari’s Rental Family, review says

Brendan Fraser is described as a bland, ingratiating presence in Rental Family, a film from Japanese actor‑turned‑director Hikari that a Guardian reviewer calls glib, silly and pointless. Fraser plays Phillip, an unemployed American actor who stayed in Tokyo after making a goofy toothpaste ad.

The film centres on a “rental family” business, based on firms in Japan that offer bespoke therapeutic role‑play services such as errant spouses, deceased loved ones or unsatisfactory co‑workers. Phillip is hired to pose as a father to a little girl for a private school interview, as a mock son to an ageing actor for a flattering profile, and as a phoney groom on a staged wedding day.

The reviewer compares the premise to Werner Herzog’s Family Romance, LLC (2019) and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps, noting those films at least acknowledged how bizarre and potentially harmful the business can be. By contrast, Hikari’s film is said to turn the material into feelgood slush, offering vacuous platitudes about role‑playing and striking a complacent, sentimental tone that the critic finds implausible and fatuous.

Onscreen resolution is also questioned: Phillip is shown explaining and apologising to the little girl but not to the older actor, and the reviewer concludes the film feels smug, saccharine and fundamentally wrong‑headed, leaving its dramatic and comic value in doubt.

Key Topics

Culture, Brendan Fraser, Hikari, Rental Family Services, Tokyo, Family Romance, Llc