Rental Family (2025)
Brendan Fraser speaks rather authentic-sounding Japanese (to this non-speaker anyway) as he plays down and out Philip Vanderploeg here, a struggling actor who gets pulled into a gig with a 'rental family agency'. Instead of ads and bit parts, he plays stand-in roles for strangers – a professional roleplayer of sorts. And it's a role that Philip soon takes on with aplomb.
Everything is pretty low-stakes, though this is not to say it is treated frivolously. Philip gets called out for getting too emotionally involved with one of the clients, but he is allowed a graceful ending and – that rare and precious thing – forgiveness.
Brendan Fraser's big brown eyes carry a LOT of weight in this. His earnestness saves the whole thing from being too twee.
Loved the glimpses of everyone else in the agency – wished they got a bit more time.