A lonely, down and out American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese "rental family" company to play various stand-in roles in other people's lives. Along the way, he discovers unexpected joys within his built-in family.
The kind of film to watch when you’re tired of bad news and just want to immerse yourself in some humor with heart.
Rental Family 2025
| Nov 23 |
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The 2025 festival may be over, but Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival is proud to present a special one-off preview screening of Rental Family, in conjunction with The Walt Disney Company New Zealand and Searchlight Pictures.
This exclusive event gives audiences the chance to experience the film ahead of its wider release, extending that festival feel just a little longer. We’re excited to welcome film lovers back to celebrate this standout title with us — see it before everyone else at our preview screenings on Sunday November 23 across the motu.
"Oscar winners, especially those coming from left field, don’t always find worthy successors to their award-winning roles. But Brendan Fraser has come up with a beaut in his first starring part since The Whale. Playing an American actor living in Tokyo who finds a unique way to practice his craft, the actor delivers a superlative performance in Rental Family, a dramedy that proves a charming surprise balancing poignancy and humor with rare delicacy.
At the story’s beginning, Philip (Fraser) is struggling to make a living after living in Tokyo for seven years. After a big toothpaste commercial, the jobs have dried up, to the point where he’s reduced to playing a tree. So he’s more than willing to accept an unspecified gig for which he’s only told by his agent that he’ll be playing a “sad American.”
It turns out that he’s attending a funeral featuring the deceased in an open casket surrounded by grieving mourners. Except it turns out that the person is very much alive, and that Philip has been hired by the “Rental Family” agency that specializes in providing actors to deliver “specialized performances” in personal role-play situations. (Apparently, this is a thing in Japan.)
Rental Family cannily exploits its unusual premise to both comical and moving effect. Philip’s next assignments prove challenging because he can’t separate his feelings from his professional obligations. In one case, he plays a journalist pretending to interview a legendary Japanese actor (played by actual legendary Japanese actor Akira Emoto, of Dr. Akagi fame) because his daughter doesn’t want him to feel forgotten. In the other, he plays the American father of an 11-year-old girl, Mia (Shannon Gorman, affecting in her film debut), whose single mother is desperate to get her enrolled in a prestigious private school. In both cases, Philip, who wears his heart on his sleeve, makes choices that get him into trouble with his clients.
“Why do adults always lie?” Mia plaintively asks Philip at one particularly vulnerable moment. It’s a question to which we can all relate, and one to which Rental Family provides touching and incisive answers." - Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter