Rental Family is a beautiful film set in Japan. It has Philip Vanderploeg (Brendan Fraser) as a fish-out-of-water American in Japan. The film starts with him as an underemployed actor who wants to do more. Although the characters say that Japanese culture is inscrutable to the non-Japanese, the film shrinks from presenting Japanese culture in caricatured stereotypes. An exception to that is the funeral that opens the movie. It presents the culture of a funeral in a cartoon situation. However, it offers a transition to introduce the audience to the chaotic world of rental families.

An enduring feeling in the film is one of loneliness. Looking across the way toward the neighbor’s apartments, Fraser could see the everyday lives of his neighbors as they raise children and celebrate days full of comfort and companionship. When he is not working, this view from his apartment returns to ground the film in the alienation of big-city life. Sometimes the people who are important to him are able to redeem that sadness and remind him of more recent joys.

At times, the film was filled with the manic energy of Fraser jumping between roles in lives of the clients of the agency he works for. That agency had rescued him from his boredom and depression. The agency is led by Shinji Taja (Takehiro Hira) who arranges situations for Fraser and his coworkers to join. Before each “acting gig,” Fraser would study the families as if he were studying for a role in a TV show. Although the situations that he joins are meant to deceive other family members, the relationships simulate reality and provide a rental family member that can fill some need. His first role is especially fraught where he is marrying a young woman. Fraser balks so his coworker, Aiko Nakajima (Mari Yamamoto), has to prevent a catastrophe by insisting on his participation. The intensity of that marriage commitment has an unexpected but affirming resolution.

Themes that are explored include dealing with memory, age and death. Another theme is commitment and responsibility. Fatherhood is a situation that replaces Fraser’s youth without a father by his acting as father to a young girl. Despite the simulated relationships that are dishonest, they can help people process difficult transitions. However, they also have a complementary effect on the actors that is an inevitable consequence.

One feature of the movie that I really enjoyed were the panoramic views of the world outside of Tokyo. The intermissions contrast the rectilinear, man-made world of a city with the natural, analog, beauty surrounding Tokyo. The natural world has a rhythm that is stable and calming. One sequence travels away from the city into a rural beauty near the ocean.

The online resources such as imdb.com categorize the movie as both a comedy and a tragedy. I definitely could identify the comedy because the bizarre situations that Fraser and his coworkers insert themselves into are really funny. As for tragedy, I don’t really identify that. Perhaps one could call the crisis in the movie as a tragedy, but that was a way of bringing the energy down a notch, not to announce failure and despair.

The movie starts with Fraser hitting bottom. He finds a way out through the rental agency and hits a euphoric phase of interacting as a for-rent family member. As things get stable, the euphoria levels off and Fraser has to make a decision of what he wants to be committed to. As the deception reaches a climax, the story flows into a crisis of confidence. It ends in a cheerful balance that is peaceful and comfortable. By the end of the moving the characters have had a chance to reflect on their lives and feel balance and hope.

The director and co-writer, Hikari, brought the characters to a stage of chaos and unpredictable situations that reminds me of the film Parasite (2019) which also has its characters in a whirlpool of deception. Rental Family doesn’t have them crash and instead they transition into a feeling of success and competence.