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It’s almost unimaginable to root in opposition to somebody as affable and real as Brendan Fraser. At 56, he just lately cemented his comeback with an Oscar-winning efficiency in “The Whale,” a movie I by no means absolutely embraced, even when Fraser poured each ounce of himself into the function. It was a type of conditions the place, if somebody needed to win, you had been glad it was him. Now he returns to leading-man standing within the feel-good dramedy “Rental Household,” from co-writer and director Hikari (who directed a number of episodes of Netflix’s “Beef”). The film will seemingly allure mass audiences with its cheery premise, however I struggled with it, and worse, it thinks it’s way more profound than it’s.
Fraser performs Phillip, a struggling American actor who has been dwelling in Japan for almost a decade. He’s adopted native customs, speaks fluent Japanese, and clings to the fleeting notoriety of a tacky toothpaste business the place he performed a superhero battling gingivitis. Why he stays in a metropolis that doesn’t supply him a lot alternative is unclear, however luck seems to strike when he stumbles right into a gig with Rental Household, an organization that manufactures synthetic recollections and life situations. That is additionally the second the place the film’s already-thin believability begins to crumble.
Phil’s introduction to the enterprise entails a mock funeral the place the “deceased” springs again to life, one of many movie’s genuinely humorous sequences. As a token white man, Phil is a novelty the corporate believes it will probably use. He reluctantly indicators on, presumably as a result of his appearing profession isn’t paying the payments, although the job raises an apparent query the movie barely interrogates: “Isn’t this incorrect?”
As an alternative of constructing rigidity round that moral minefield, the story turns into much more implausible when Phil is employed to pose as a father determine for a biracial lady named Mia (Shannon Gorman). Her mom hopes the phantasm will assist Mia get into an elite personal college. Somewhat than simply rent Phil for the tutorial interview, which might be the logical selection, the mom insists he truly bond with Mia to make the lie extra convincing. As a result of nothing screams good parenting like emotional manipulation.
Your entire setup feels queasy, and the film by no means acknowledges how unsettling it’s. The concept of fabricating a father to safe a faculty spot is; on one hand, you perceive a mom preventing for her little one’s future. On the opposite, doing so on the expense of Mia’s emotional well-being, particularly since her actual father deserted her at a younger age, borders on malpractice. The movie flirts with extra compelling territory via one other gig involving an getting older actor dealing with Alzheimer’s, a storyline that carries extra emotional nuance and plausibility than the faux-dad routine, which regularly performs like one thing Nathan Fielder would possibly try on “The Rehearsal.”
But Hikari by no means meaningfully grapples with the deeper realities of this line of labor. Actors with Rental Household are routinely berated, even assaulted, and the movie treats it like background noise. It additionally refuses to discover the lasting penalties of manipulating a toddler’s grief and longing. As an alternative, “Rental Household” settles into a pleasing, breezy rhythm, hoping its healthful intentions overshadow its shaky ethics. It can in all probability work for a lot of viewers within the second. However in some unspecified time in the future, audiences might confront simply how disturbing these situations actually are.
Nonetheless, Fraser is heat, grounded, and compelling, and it’s good to see him again in full leading-man type. I simply want the film round him had the braveness to look its personal concepts within the eye.
RENTAL FAMILY is now enjoying in theaters.