Rental Family | TIFF50

With a sweeping score and moving performances, Rental Family immerses you in the life of Phillip (Fraser), an American actor living in Tokyo, who encounters a unique opportunity to be part of a "rental family" agency. As an actor at this agency, Phillip is tasked with playing key roles in the lives of those that request his services. The film simultaneously asks the audience to consider what it means to reach out for connection, and to go inward to reflect on the life you want to live.

Based on the real practice of "rental family" agencies, director HIKARI shows how the practice affects people on all sides - the actors, the people who request them, and the companies that run the show. She illustrates how these services can both be deeply meaningful, and also laden with emotional risk. The line between reality and fiction blur prompting the viewer to ask ourselves, where does a fabricated connection end and a real one begin?

Director HIKARI did a brief Q&A at the screening I attended and she offered an insightful window into the filmmaking process. She spoke of the epidemic of loneliness, isolation and depression in the Japanese community (and beyond) as a result of technology being such a primary factor in people's lives. She shared that she hoped that the film would offer an opportunity for folks to see possibilities for connection, authenticity and vulnerability in the world around them. To reevaluate our understanding of what life is really all about.

This quiet, heartfelt film gets at the core of what it means to be human, to reach out and hope that someone reaches back. While some of the pacing did not completely work for me, I felt the deep care and intention with which the story was told. Fraser absolutely embodies the quiet vulnerability of Phillip, his eyes a window to a soft soul seeking connection and meaning. The film is such an important reminder that if you open up to the world around you, you never know what kind of connection you might find.