It sounds rather like a mixed compliment to say of an actor that he’s persuasive at playing, well, a mediocre actor.

But then, this is Brendan Fraser we’re talking about. The man seems to become more emphatically human with each role, each passing year, each new wrinkle. And what’s more human, or at least more vulnerable and relatable, than mediocrity?

It is this essential vulnerability that keeps Fraser’s latest venture, filmmaker Hikari’s Tokyo-set “Rental Family,” from inching over that thin line between heartwarming and totally sappy.

Certainly the film has a fascinating premise, one that would have worked well enough were it totally fictional — but works better with the knowledge that it’s based on fact. There are, indeed, companies in Japan like the one at the center of Hikari

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