‘Rental Family’ Review: Family-Focused Comedy Is Effective but Frustrating

Oftentimes, human connection is not seen as a provided service. People have kids, families, and friends naturally integrated into their everyday life, providing a connection that is an essential part of the human experience. However, some people don’t have those luxuries. That’s where Brendan Fraser‘s character, Phillip, comes to the rescue in Hikari‘s Japanese-set family comedy, Rental Family, which has its world premiere at TIFF 2025.

First, and probably most startling, Phillip is called out of the blue to attend a funeral, of which he has no relation to the deceased. Infiltrating the service in a way that one would expect a larger, fairly awkward “token white guy” to, Phillip finds himself confused as to why his agent sent him there for a job, until he meets the owner (Takehiro Hira) of a company called “Rental Family” – a rental service that doesn’t sell a product, nor people (as Phillip initially suspects in a funny back and forth), but emotions.

Check out our Rental Family review from TIFF 2025 below!

Rental Family Offers Family For A Fee at TIFF 2025

Phillip remains unconvinced that this is the best next step for his career. However, he has lived in Japan for seven years, struggling to find acting roles after becoming a national sensation in a toothpaste commercial. Instead, he returns to his overcrowded apartment to continue on with his life. He soon realizes that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to help people where they need it most.

The people that need the service of a surrogate person the most, and the ones that Rental Family pinpoints as the most important throughout its one hour and 43 minute runtime, are those of a mother (Mari Yamamoto) who is trying to help her daughter (Shannon Mahina Gorman) get into a private school, who unfortunately, they need a father to do so. The story also features aging director Kikuo (Akira Emoto), whose daughter needs an “interviewer” to write up a story on him so he can feel relevant again.

The Emotional Strings Are Pulled A Bit Too Hard

Rental Family is emotionally effective, that’s for sure. Utilizing Fraser’s puppy-dog eyes and tender way of speaking, Hikari explores the deep desire to feel loved, concerned for, and looked after. Tackling both ends of the age spectrum, from kid to senior citizen, allows the opportunity for the script to hammer home some powerfully punchy lines of dialogue that are sure to make your eyes well up, just like Fraser’s on occasion, when aligned with the orchestral cues.

However, the heavy-handedness leads the movie to overlook many technicalities of its narrative, exchanging sincere and heartfelt moments between Phillip and those he grows to love for unearned plot devices and “reveals” that don’t feel naturally aligned with the rest of the movie. The over-reliance on Fraser’s emotionality acts as a double-edged sword, providing enough moments to become affected by the ideas of legacy, family, and companionship, while not entirely digging into those ideas beyond what’s presented on the surface.

‘Rental Family’ Review: Flawed but Worth It, Just Like Us

The tender moments in between landscape shots of beautiful Japan are enough to warrant an empathetic experience with the film, regardless of whether all the puzzle pieces of cast, comedy, and heart of Rental Family fit together perfectly.

Still, with the essence of human connection at the core of the story being told, accented by a wonderful performance from Brendan Fraser, it’s hard to turn your nose up at the impact kinship has on people in general, and, more importantly, mental health.

Rental Family releases in movie theaters nationwide on November 21. Follow Agents of Fandom on socials for all the latest entertainment news and reviews.