A nice little haiku about Brendan Fraser acting into people’s lives, and learning to love them.
Brendan Fraser has redefined his acting career after winning the Oscar for “The Whale.” We enjoyed his cameo in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and his new role in “Rental Family,” and yet, nobody overexploits his talents. It shows that in one generation, he was a stud, and in next generation, he meets well with age.
“Rental Family” serves as a haiku to struggling actors finding a different purpose in life, and it doesn’t act all overly sentimental. The struggling actor Fraser plays is Phillip Vandarploeug, who moves to Tokyo, where his most successful role is a “Clear Bright” toothpaste commercial, in which he plays a superhero wear a toothpaste helmet and a blue suit, and has a giant toothbrush battling cavity creeps. At least I think they like the cavity creeps, because they look more human than rocks. And I guess that would trying to be like Crest.
I’ve never heard of any rental family services, but it is a service in which actors play friends, relatives or co-workers for big events, and that Japan started it in 1991. Phillip ends up under the employment of the Rental Family’s owner Shinji (Takehiro Hira), who has to be stern with him, especially when the new employee doesn’t want to be a liar in all this. This is the part when he must carefully think about this, and he reluctantly decides to go with it.
At first, he chokes at a wedding in which he plays a Canadian marrying a woman, who is secretly a lesbian. She needed him to marry her, so she can give the ring to her secret spouse. But then, he starts to improve when he plays the American father to a little girl named Mia Kawasaki (Shannon Mahina Gorman), who needs his help in getting into the best school in the country; and when he plays a journalist interviewing a celebrated retired actor named Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), who needs to fill a certain void in his life.
Despite the rules of his job, he starts to connect with the girl and actor, respectively. And it would be inevitable that the girl’s mother (Shino Shinozaki) would tell him not to get too close to her and leave when after the school interview is over. Of course, she would tell him that.
“Rental Family” was written and directed by Hiraki, who started off directing short films before transitioning into the feature “37 Seconds” and directing TV episodes for “Tokyo Vice” and “Beef.” His new film allows Fraser to develop into a character who needs more than minor roles, but transitions into a person required to play fake characters, but learns to care about his clients. His relationship with the girl is sweet and his chemistry with the old man is affectionate, and respectively, Gorman and Emoto are both very good in their roles.
Some of the formulas I’ve mentioned seem obligatory and sometimes typical, but at least, they’re handle with less irritation and more passion. When it comes to characters forcing to lie, you know there is going to be the rising action, when a certain person (I can’t say who) finds out about the truth. But it’s relief it is handled in a somber manner. And maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. It could also lead to other directions that prove its escape from other movie formulas. I still can’t say how, but it does know how to be sweet without being overly sentimental.
Fraser was a cool actor in my youth, he practically fell into oblivion in my 20s, and now, in my adulthood, he changes our perspectives. “Rental Family” is another charming example of that.
