(2.5 stars)
Can we take a moment to acknowledge the strange trajectory of Brendan Fraser’s career? Shooting to fame more than 30 years ago playing a caveman in a Pauly Shore comedy, he became best known as the cocky, swashbuckling hero of “The Mummy” and its sequels, then practically disappeared. Years later, he reemerged looking different — older, sure, but also more haunted. The roles that best suit him these days are the ones that take advantage of his post-hiatus aura: the fact that, even when he’s smiling, his big eyes seem to glitter with unshed tears. That look served him particularly well in “The Whale,” which earned him an Oscar two years ago.
The new movie that features Fraser’s ineffable melancholy is “Rental Family.” Set in Tokyo, the film follows Phillip Vandarpleog, a lonely American actor whose sad life can be summed up by the fact that he eats dinner on his bed — takeout, of course — while wearing a Mister Rogers sweater and surveying the more interesting lives unfolding in the apartment building facing his own.
He’s been auditioning for roles without much luck when his agent calls with a cryptic gig: He will be playing “Sad American.” When Phillip shows up at the appointed time and place, he is ushered into a funeral where he awkwardly seats himself among the grief-stricken mourners. In an instant, he realizes that his job is to become one of them. This is his first introduction to Rental Family, a company that hires out actors for all sorts of unorthodox purposes. The place is run by the no-nonsense Shinji (“Shogun’s” Takehiro Hira), who wants Phillip to be their “token White guy.” Still, Phillip is confused. What exactly does the agency do? “We sell emotion,” Shinji explains. “You just have to help clients connect to what’s missing.”
There’s something inherently lovely but also tragic about such a concept, what with the epidemic-level loneliness afflicting most of the world’s population. What a shame that we’ve become so hermetic that we need to hire someone to feel something like closeness. And yet, the emotional opportunities for the premise are vast. The arc of the film seems clear; we’re about to witness people rediscovering the importance of human connection. Grab the tissues!
But “Rental Family,” directed by Hikari (a.k.a. Mitsuyo Miyazaki), who co-wrote the script with Stephen Blahut, zigs when it might have zagged. The film focuses most closely on two of Phillip’s long-term roles. In one, he portrays a journalist hired by the daughter of Kikuo (Akira Emoto), an aging actor with dementia who believes the world has forgotten him. In another, he’s paid by a mother to pretend to be her young daughter’s absentee father so he can help her get into a prestigious school.
In both cases, Phillip gets closer to his targets than he’s strictly supposed to. And who can blame him? Reality keeps encroaching on the fantasy — such as when the little girl, Mia (Shannon Gorman), gives him one of her artistic creations to brighten up his tragic apartment — and fantasy starts seeping into reality; when Kikuo asks Phillip if he has any kids, he says yes, one, a daughter. They’re not close, he explains, though he’d like them to be. Uh-oh.
There’s no inherent reason that false pretenses should invalidate affection, at least when it comes to fiction. It worked in “The Taming of the Shrew,” didn’t it? But even Shakespeare didn’t gaslight a child. To appreciate the bond that begins to form between Mia and Phillip requires some contortionist-level moral flexibility. And even if we could see past how problematic the foundation of their relationship is, each new brick feels equally porous. In one scene, intended to illustrate the pair’s growing connection, “father” and “daughter” wander alone through a street festival, which is less heartwarming than distracting, because why on Earth did Mia’s mother leave her daughter alone with this stranger?
The movie is on better footing when it gives in to its comedic impulses. Sight gags abound in footage of Phillip starring in past projects, including a toothpaste commercial that required him to wear turquoise spandex and wield a giant toothbrush; and Bun Kimura, who plays a chronically frazzled Rental Family employee, delivers a steady stream of one-liners to lighten a mood that keeps trending toward melodrama.
In the end, “Rental Family” is a movie that gives viewers a lot to ponder — about loneliness and family, about the importance of truth and the comfort of white lies — even if the delivery mechanism proves imperfect.
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains thematic elements, some strong language and suggestive material. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. 110 minutes.
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