Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic, but this film does have available audio description.

If you are part of the block that sees Brendan Fraser as the human equivalent of a warm hug, then get ready for a big bear hug from the man. Rental Family is one of the few life affirming, feel good films of 2025. I just truly think no one knew what to do with it. Even with as much as I enjoyed the movie, I can’t think of a single award I would have nominated it for. Even in the youth performer category, last year was a beast of a yer for youth actors and actresses.Rental Family is a film destined to be loved, but slowly as word of mouth creeps out. It was unfortunately pegged as an awards title, for which it was never going to get. The traction here was limited, but the fact it didn’t do better at TIFF with the audience award did surprise me.

This is my second time viewing rental Family, as the first was part of FYC season, and Disney doesn’t send out audio description. I did get to the film, and the second viewing was so much more rewarding. A film I thought I’d like, based on my limited availability in enjoying a film not fully in English, was really amplified by the audio description not just providing visual context, but also able to translate the dialogue I was missing.

Brendan Fraser plays an American actor living in Japan, where he has struggled to find meaningful work as an actor. He ends up answering an actors call for a company called rental Family, and soon gets pulled in on the dramatic life choices and reasons these people would hire him. After sitting through a fake funeral, he is able to help a young girl give her parents the wedding of their dreams, only so she can go off and live with her female partner. Then, he ends up in his life changing moment, hired to be a dad to a fatherless little girl just long enough to help her get into a good school, and also so she can have some reference of having met her father at some point. This storyline is so warm, and you can feel Fraser’s connection growing with each encounter. While he isn’t her dad, nor does the film even remotely tease the idea that her mother might be interested in him, Fraser has formed a bond.

He also ends up pretending to be a journalist to help write the life story of an aging actor, battling early dementia. The two of them get along like gangbusters, and this storyline is just as emotionally deep.

we even see other actors who work for Rental Family struggle with their gigs. One woman is hired to pretend she was the girl a man was cheating on his wife with, because he’s too cowardly to use the real mistress. Even the owner of the company has an interesting moment, where you see how he might value his own work.

I adore this film. The audio description is lovely, and uses multiple AD performers for the AD and for the subtitles.

Rental Family manages to both satisfy the desire to find happiness in connection, without shaming those who live independently. A gentle, warm embrace from Brendan Fraser that is deeply underappreciated.

Fresh: 8.8/10