Brendan Fraser is Phillip Vanderploeg a jobbing American actor who went to Japan to star in a toothpaste commercial, playing a superhero, and ended up staying. Seven years later he's living in a tiny apartment and struggling to make ends, taking small bit parts whenever he can. Just then fate comes knocking on his door when he's hired for a bit part, told to wear his black suit and to be at the location next morning. He does and finds himself at a funeral, in a room packed full of mourners and so begins his new career working for a Rental Family agency as an emotional surrogate, be it a 'Sad American', a husband, a father, friend, or journalist. At first Phillip is unsure and almost ruins his first proper assignment, but slowly he comes to terms with his role and even starts to revel in it, particularly as the 'acting' father to a young mixed-race girl, whose single mother is so desperate to get her daughter a place at an exclusive school that she hires Phillip to be her child's father. Slowly over time these roles help Phillip to recover his own humanity and his life begins to take on meaning again, but at what cost...
The very definition of a 'feel good' movie, this is good-natured, heart-warming and dare I say life-affirming. Brendan Fraser does a standout job as the lost actor and it's a treat to watch these ordinary people whose lives he touches re-ignite his own passion for life. Running along side the main story we also follow two other members of the Rental Family staff, boss Shinji played by Takehiro Hira who is hiding a tragic secret that truly surprises when it's revealed, and Mari Yamamoto as Aiko, a fellow employoee who specialises in playing mistresses apologising to wives of unfaithful husbands. This never slips into over-sentimentalisation and the two key fake relationships at its core are both moving and poignant.
But real star of the whole film is Japan itself, it's so rare to see the city of Tokyo like this, so large and vibrant and to witness the everyday life of the city, in fact it's infectious, you come for the story but you stay for the actual spectacle. You find yourself exploring the background lapping up all the strange everyday details and losing yourself in an utterly alien environments.
Well directed, with a subtle soundtrack and beautiful cinematography this was a deeply satisfying and touching movie and a true treat to watch. With no overt drama or action, or wise-cracking and once again an, to all purposes, a foreign language film that offers up a truly unique, naturally funny, and sensitive movie experience.
8/10
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