Brendan Fraser's 2025 Drama Set In Japan Is An Underrated Family Movie

Uncovering underrated gems from every year after it ends is a favorite pastime of mine during the awards season, because the conversations at the time are focused on the previous year's output, prompting revisits of the year's highlights. By the time the 2026 Oscar nominations were announced, I had already made it halfway through my watchlist of lesser-known films.

The most underrated 2025 movies with low Rotten Tomatoes scoresinclude some great films of the year that flew under the radar and were unfairly panned by critics. It is surprising how many bankable Hollywood stars featured in or led movies that went ignored because 2025 eventually became one of the best years for cinema.

Not enough people were talking about Benedict Cumberbatch's busy 2025, for instance, despite him starring in three movies last year. It is perhaps even more surprising that, despite capping off a comeback journey with an Oscar win less than four years ago, Brendan Fraser's new movie ended up one of the year's most underrated.

Brendan Fraser Plays A Struggling Actor In Rental Family

Brendan Fraser stars in Hikari's Rental Family as an actor struggling to find meaningful roles in Tokyo, where he gives auditions for commercials that barely help him get by. He then encounters an odd job that allows him to find a sense of purpose, eventually changing his outlook on life and on his profession.

The backstory of Phillip Vanderploeg, Fraser's character, isn't fully revealed, but it's made clear that he's mostly known for a commercial he once did that he finds somewhat embarrassing now. So, when he discovers that people are willing to pay him to pretend to be family members that they either lost or never had, it is initially bizarre but ultimately rewarding.

The film is practically solely focused on Phillip's perspective, featuring many important minor characters but remaining focused on him. Reviews of Rental Family thus rightfully focus on Fraser's nuanced, poised, and warm performance, which holds the emotional thread of the movie together while also getting audiences invested in Phillips' tumultuous but comforting journey.

Rental Family Takes A Sympathetic Look At Loneliness

Phillip's job in Rental Family involves performing in real life, without any stage, set, or camera. He works for real people by pretending to be someone important in their lives. The need for this job arises from the deep-seated loneliness that his clients feel. Loneliness is a well-documented aspect of life in Japan, and Rental Family is respectful about it.

Instead of ridiculing people for paying a stranger to pretend to be a family member or companion that they don't have, the movie explores how Phillip's presence brightens their days. Brendan Fraser and Takehiro Hira have talked about Rental Family addressing the worldwide loneliness epidemic with a soft attitude that gives viewers understanding and a warm hug.

Phillip portrays a varied group of people in his clients' lives, but the movie primarily follows him through two notable jobs. He fakes being a journalist documenting the life of an aged actor at his daughter's request to make him feel relevant again, but his biggest job is pretending to be a little girl's estranged father to help with school admissions.

Instead of focusing specifically on one kind of role that Phillip could play, the movie portrays both his range as an actor and the variety in the clientele of such a service. This way, its exploration of loneliness adopts a more universal perspective, especially since it also explores the jobs done by Phillip's coworkers, which have a wide variety, too.

Rental Family Is Perfect For Watching As A Family

Through its portrayal of the need for companionship, Rental Family, as the name suggests, ultimately explores people's need for family and togetherness. It was one of the best movies to premiere at TIFF 2025, and almost immediately won viewers over by being warm and cozy without shying away from addressing harsh realities, and by exploring the ephemeral nature of human connection.

Its feel-good approach to a difficult subject makes it an authentic exploration of the human condition that focuses on the role of family, born or found. So, Rental Family makes for an ideal family watch, especially since its language is also never truly coarse or extreme, even in its most intense moments. If anything, it will make viewers feel loved.

The Performances In Rental Family Deserve Praise

The screenplay and direction of Rental Family invite audiences into a world where the loneliness epidemic has turned the community into an island of disconnected people who still do want to make an effort at finding peace, love, and solace, even if through unconventional means. However, what makes the film so personal for everyone are the performances.

Brendan Fraser's Oscar chances seemed to have grown for a while until the awards campaign ran out of steam. However, he's not the only actor delivering a great performance. Akira Emoto as the aging actor struggling with memory troubles even outshines Fraser at times. The nuanced acting in Rental Family deserves more recognition.