Six years ago, the inimitable Werner Herzog made “Family Romance, LLC,” an odd pseudo-documentary about a Japanese service that specialized in hiring actors to play a loved one, colleague or potential suitor — whatever the client required. The company was real (or inspired by one profiled in The New Yorker), but the examples were not. Need someone to absorb your wife’s anger over that extramarital affair without inconveniencing your mistress? Just ask Rental Family to send a proxy. Trying to fool your once-famous father into thinking he hasn’t been forgotten? Rental Family can send a “reporter” over to interview him.
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