Brendan Fraser | Bouquets & Brickbats

18/01/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

This whimsical, Japanese-set film was previously the subject of Oscar buzz, but seems to have slipped quietly out of contention. It’s a charming and affecting tale and, if there’s a danger of it occasionally straying towards ‘White Saviour’ territory, writer/director Hikari mostly manages to keep everything just the right side of the line.

Phillip Vanderploeg (Bendan Fraser) is an American actor, currently in his seventh year of residence in Tokyo. The former star of a successful toothpaste commercial, he’s now grimly attending auditions for proper acting roles without much success. When his agent sends him along to a job as an extra, he’s bewildered to find that he’d been cast as a mourner at a funeral – and that the man in the coffin is still alive. Afterwards, he meets Shinji (Takahiro Hira), who runs the company, Rental Family. They specialise in providing actors who can play stand-in family members or friends for lonely strangers (and, before you raise your eyebrows, let me assure you that agencies like this are long-established in Japan). Shinjo tells Phillip that he’s been looking for a token white guy. Would he be interested in signing up?

Pretty soon, Phillip’s finding regular work with the agency. He plays a stand-in straight husband for a woman who is secretly gay, but wants to give her parents the conventional wedding experience they expect. He is hired to ‘interview’ elderly film director, Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), once much revered by the industry but now slipping into the realms of dementia. And he is asked to play the absent father of Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman), a young half-Japanese girl whose mother wants her to attend an elite high school and needs to have a visible father-figure in attendance in order to improve her chances.

Inevitably, Phillip finds himself becoming emotionally involved with the people he works with, even though Shinji keeps warning him to stay detached from his clients…

Rental Family hits plenty of pleasing notes as the story unfolds, and its depiction of Japan is exuberant and colourful, making me wish I could experience it for myself. There’s some barbed criticism of one aspect of the agency’s services – the supplying of stand-in ‘mistresses’ for aggrieved wives to vent their anger on – but again, this is something that genuinely happens.

Fraser handles the role of Phillip with his customary skill, managing to convey a whole variety of emotions with little more than a grimace or a smile. I do however find myself unconvinced by one decision he makes concerning Kikuo – would anyone of his maturity act so rashly? But his interplay with Mia is nicely judged and there are moments here that have me wishing I’d come armed with a handkerchief. There’s also a late-stage revelation concerning one of Phillip’s co-workers that really does take me utterly by surprise.

Overall, Rental Family makes for enjoyable viewing. But be warned: one scene where Phillip and Kikuo share a delicious-looking meal in a tiny barbecue restaurant may have you leaving the cinema feeling absolutely ravenous.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

11/02/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) is rapidly approaching the end of his life. Since the death of his partner, Adam, he has allowed his health to decline. Inanimate, a binge eater and a housebound recluse, he now weighs in at over 600 pounds and, as his friend, Liz (Hong Chau), repeatedly tells him, if he doesn’t get himself to a hospital he will, inevitably, suffer a massive heart attack. But Charlie has no health insurance and insists on working at every opportunity, teaching English Literature online – though he pretends that the camera on his computer is broken so his students cannot see him.

But Charlie still has one burning ambition, – to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), whom he abandoned when she was eight years old. It’s not going to be easy, because she is hostile to his approaches, blaming him for the fact that her mother, Mary (Samantha Morton), is a heavy drinker and still very much a loner. Into this scenario wanders Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a young missionary, seeking to give Charlie some spiritual help – but mostly looking for his own salvation.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky with a screenplay by Samuel D Hunter (based on his stage play), The Whale was filmed during lockdown, and (very fittingly) feels trapped by its stage origins, confining itself almost completely to Charlie’s dark and claustrophobic apartment. It’s been accused by some as an exercise in fat-shaming, though this seems unfair: Charlie is an engaging and complex character, dealing with grief and addiction. Fraser wears convincing prosthetics, created by a whole team of artists, which serve to illuminate the almost cartoonish grotesquery of his size, while still making us empathise with his plight.

There’s no doubting the power of Fraser’s Oscar-nominated performance in the central role, fuelled to some degree, I think, by his own punishing experiences in the movie industry. In fact, all of the performances here are skilled, particularly Sink’s incandescent turn as an anger-fuelled teenager, determined to exact her revenge on just about everyone she encounters. The scene where Charlie has to offer to pay her to visit him is particularly tragic.

If I’m honest, I think there are better, more nuanced films in this year’s Oscar contenders, but I won’t be at all surprised if Fraser gets the nod for best actor. His performance here is exemplary, and The Whale is a powerful and affecting drama.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney