Rental Family

Sometimes you just need something cozy and Rental Family does just that.

Hikari’s drama-comedy stars Brendan Fraser as Phillip Vandarpleog, an actor living in Japan desperate for work. He ends up being hired for a company that specializes in rental relationships, where a person will be hired to fill a role in another person's life. This could be a friend, spouse, or even a parent. We follow Phillip as he gets intertwined with many people’s lives and struggles to separate himself with the roles he plays.

The best thing about this film is the color grading. I often complain about modern movies not knowing how to color their films so it’s so refreshing to see a film that knows what they are doing. The blues and greys are so unique and really make the film pop.

Another standout is the performances. Fraser absolutely kills it as the lead, balancing funny moments with gut wrenching ones. He switches between these different roles so effortlessly. The other actors are also heavy hitters, with Takehiro Hira as Shinji doing an amazing job as the boss.

The score is really great. Really silly at times in a good way. A great aspect of this film is that they know when to cut the sound. There’s some emotional moments where normally there would be a rise in score and a very dramatic score to make the audience feel. But Rental Family has these moments be silent, adding to the realism and making them hit harder.

It’s hard to think of any glaring negatives with this one. It’s a bit cliche at parts and it’s not reinventing the wheel with its storytelling. But man it packs such an emotional punch that it's hard to stay mad at it. This will be a great movie to take your family around the holidays.