Spoiler Warning! The following contains major spoilers for Rental Family. If you’ve yet to watch the movie, you can check it out right now with a Hulu subscription.
After missing Rental Family in theaters, I made sure to not make the same mistake when the Brendan Fraser dramedy joined the list of new movies streaming in early 2026. The movie, which is nothing short of an incredible, emotional experience, had me in tears (both from laughter and heartbreak) as it explored an American actor taking on an unorthodox, yet fulfilling role: playing important figures in strangers’ lives. While I agree with critics’ thoughts on Hikari’s transformative movie, there’s one scene I wish was left on on the cutting room floor.
No, it’s not the scene where Fraser’s Phillip Vanderploeg plays a wrestling game with a client that took me down a rabbit hole of old Dreamcast titles. Nor is it that funeral sequence early on in the film. Instead, it’s a moment a the very end that just rubbed me the wrong way.
The Scene Where Phillip Goes Back To Visit Mia Is Problematic
Phillip Vanderploeg being hired to play the role of Mia Kawasaki’s (Shannon Mahina Gorman) father so that the young girl has a better chance of getting into a prominent school is one of the most charming threads in Rental Family. The way the struggling actor channels his own personal experiences to portray the girl’s father and convince her he is who he says he is creates a powerful journey that is incredibly fulfilling. Their story came to a satisfying, albeit heartbreaking end when the young girl discovered Phillip was an actor hired by her single mother. Or at least, that’s where it should have ended.
Instead, we get this scene where Phillip goes back to see Mia sometime after she starts the new school and is given a shot at a bright future. While it is a charming scene, it’s also problematic in a few ways. First, the idea of a grown man wanting to be friends with a young girl is odd, but that’s not the worst part.
What really ruined it for me is that it diminishes the impact of their interaction the last time they saw each other (where Mia discovered the truth) as well as the scene where Mia and her mom (played by Shino Shinozaki) reconnect after their big blowup about the whole “you hired an actor to be my dad” situation.
I Think It Would Have Been More Impactful If This Scene Didn’t Exist
Though the scene isn’t without merit, I do think that the final few minutes of Rental Family, and as a result the entire movie, would have been much better if this reunion never happened. The stretch from Phillip taking Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) on one final journey to his hometown before his death, to the funeral, then to the next stage of Rental Family’s new practices is just perfect.
You could argue that Phillip visiting Mia offers one final piece of closure for both the actor and the young girl, but I feel like the scene where Mia forgives her mother for doing what she thought would have had so much more weight without the extra scene. The lessons about family and trust would have still been there without it.
Don’t get me wrong, this sequence brought a tear to my eye (after I thought I had none left to shed). It’s just that it was something that could have been left out, and the movie wouldn’t have been made any worse.
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