Rental Family

Set in modern Tokyo, Rental Family is a drama-comedy following an American actor, Philip (Brendan Fraser) who lands an unusual job working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ company. It is co-written and directed by Japanese actress and director Hikari and is an international co-production between Japan and the US. But here in the UK, the critics hated it. The Guardian described it as ‘mawkish’ and The Independent as ‘treacly’. So, what does it say about me, that I liked it?

I can tell it’s not a great film, but it had charm and it let me sink into a story where I cared about the people.

Some coincidences – earlier in the day I had listened to a podcast which discussed the Hull Truck Theatre Company’s Innovation Award for drama based training schemes for GPs – a scheme using actors, role-play and reflection to allow GPs to explore empathy and connection in the treatment of patients. I’d also heard Martin Freeman, on the How to Fail podcast, talk about the hard work of an actor in not being ‘caught acting’. This was about the emphasis he places on naturalistic performances that requires an effort that he doesn’t want the audience to notice.

Listening to these podcasts before seeing the film had already made me consider role-playing, empathy, connection and the fine lines between performance, lying and authenticity.

In the film, Rental Family is a company that pays actors to play roles in the lives of strangers: A fake funeral so the ‘dead’ can hear their eulogies. A sham marriage so that a woman does not have to confront her family’s homophobia. But it gets creepier. Fake mistresses to blame for a husband’s infidelity. An ageing actor deep in the throes of dementia meeting an interviewer to do a fake story. And most problematic of all, posing as Mia’s father. Mia is a nine-year old girl of mixed parentage, who has been bullied and whose mother has a life laid out for her, including attending a highly competitive school which needs to interview both parents.

There is no doubt that Mia, an articulate, emotionally mature, artistically-gifted child deserves better than some sham connection. And it is uneasy, but somehow, I trusted the film to do its best by Mia and the plot, which it did because Fraser played the pathos just right. Fraser’s big, brimming eyes and soft presence carry the film beyond the limits of the script.

My positive appraisal may simply be that I was in the mood for the film. Because I can see that the morality depicted is broken and merely patched up with sticking plasters. That the film doesn’t really offer solutions to a society that needs whipping boys and girls, or fake apologies to maintain reputation. And this means that when a real apology is made it doesn’t quite ring true. But these are my thoughts after the fact. In the film, in the moment of watching, I wanted the romance to balance the melancholy.

I wanted connection.

Empathy is currently in short supply. This film was a little reminder that although empathy is what makes humans human, it is also a skill that needs to be learned and a context to practice it in.

It is not the most accomplished film I will see this year, but I am grateful for its sentimentality. For letting me be a soft, squidgy mush of a human for 109 minutes.

If you've enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by leaving a one-time tip or a regular pledge. Thank you.