Rent Rental Family (2025)

Tears for Hire - Rental Family review by griggs

Hikari’s Rental Family means well—almost too well. It’s so eager to move you it practically pokes you in the eye. The premise, about a lonely man hired to play a father figure for strangers, should be fertile ground for tenderness and reflection. And for a while it is. The performances are gentile, the tone warm, and the message clear: everyone wants to belong somewhere.

But for all its sincerity, the film can’t resist tugging too hard on teh heartstrings. Every emotional beat feels timed to the second, every reaction a little too rehearsed. What might have been quietly moving turns syrupy, leaving the aftertaste of something sweet but artificial.

Hikari directs with care and empathy, and there’s no denying the craft. Still, it confuses sentiment with substance—heart over depth. Rental Familyoffers plenty of feeling; it just doesn't leave much room for yours.

Sentimental Drama That Has Some Issues!! - Rental Family review by GI

An exploration of isolation and loneliness set in Japan and utilising a service available there from companies who supply actors to play fake roles as family members, friends etc. Brendan Fraser gives a gentle and emotional performance as Philip, an American actor who did a toothpaste commercial and then remained in Japan having no-one back home to return to. He now spends lonely days hoping for more work but just gets pointless roles that are unsatisfying. Then he gets hired by a Rental Family company and moves into the morally questionable arena of playing fake people often in circumstances that make him very uncomfortable. There are two main connections he makes through his work, the first is playing the father to a young girl, Mia, in order for her to get into a prestigious school. Mia is told that he is her real father and when they bond this causes Philip some considerable angst. The second is with an elderly actor with dementia where Philip plays a new friend. Both these relationships formed from lies and deceit show Philip a way to human connection but highlight the fraudulence and fragility in human relationships. The film is overly sentimental and the theme raises some very difficult questions about emotional abuse that are not well dealt with by the film. The storyline with Mia is particularly troublesome. However the film has a sweet disposition to it and there is some redemption for all involved by the end. It's worth checking out.