Rental Family Digital & Blu-ray Release Dates Set for Brendan Fraser Movie

Searchlight Pictures has announced the digital and Blu-ray release dates for Rental Family, the latest comedy-drama led by Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, The Whale). This comes more than a month after the Japan-set movie was released in U.S. theaters.

“Set in modern-day Tokyo, the movie follows a has-been American actor searching for purpose and belonging in a society where he feels increasingly adrift. An unexpected acting call leads him to a ‘rental family’ agency, where he is hired to play stand-in roles for strangers seeking connection,” reads the official synopsis. “As performance begins to blur with reality, the immersive role-playing awakens his humanity and compassion, drawing him deeply into his clients’ lives and pushing him off-script whenever his empathetic heart takes over.”

When are the digital & Blu-ray release dates for Rental Family?

Rental Family will be available to rent or own on digital platforms starting on Tuesday, January 13. It will then be followed by its Blu-ray release on Tuesday, February 17. Since its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie has received a Certified Fresh rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 160 reviews.

The movie was directed and produced by acclaimed Japanese filmmaker HIKARI (Beef, Tokyo Vice), who co-wrote the screenplay with Stephen Blahut. The cast also includes Takehiro Hira (Shōgun), Mari Yamamoto (Kate), Shannon Gorman, and Akira Emoto (Dr. Akagi). It is produced by Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, and Shin Yamaguchi.

Listed below are the special features included in its home video release:

Featurette: Rental Family Revealed – Go behind the scenes with Brendan Fraser, director HIKARI, and the Japanese cast as they explore friendship, culture, found family, and filming in Japan in this intimate look at the making of Rental Family.

Deleted/Extended Scenes

• Columbus
• Crying Session
• Apology
• Aiko’s First Client
• Clearbright
• Tickets
• Audition
• Phone Call
• Final Montage

During ComingSoon‘s interview with Takehiro Hira, he opened up about the inspiration behind the movie’s story. “One of the lines that I say in the film was that the mental health issue is stigmatized in Japan. So people are almost afraid to go to doctors for that problem or issue,” He shared. “They don’t want to talk to someone more intimately than a friend. So, that’s where we come from. That’s where we come into play. We provide services not to fix the actual problem from the root cause, but to do the patchwork on the surface, and sometimes it goes a long way. That’s what the rental family provides.”

Source: Comingsoon.net