Drive My Car is a 2021 film that was directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and stars Hidetoshi Nishjima. The film gained the director multiple awards around the world. Most notable being, Two Oscars for best Director and Best Screenplay. Nishjima also received the best actor award in Japan for his performance. The film's screenplay is based off a short story by the same name, written by Haruki Murakami.
A theatre director hires a women to drive his car after he starts going blind... Both of them relate through emotional wounds that have never healed.
I'm going to get this thought out the way right now. Drive My Car is very long and drawn out. The film could have been shorter than two hours and some minutes, but it's amazing that a short story that only touched the surface, could be turned into a full length film. There's high points in the drama, then there's low points where the film drags. Hamaguchi never sways away from the emotional satire that is the core of the original story. He just adds a lot of extra sauce. For example, the play scenes drag on. I can understand their connection to the story. Especially when it came to the main character's ex wife. They could have been edited out though. What really carries Drive My Car is the actual in car scenes. Many exchanges in dialogue happen in this car. These exchanges grip you as well as carry the film to it's end point.
Another important key factor to note is that the cast performances make this film so much. all the events that take place in the first hour of Drive My Car were enhanced by the acting. Drive My Car's message dealing with learning to forgive one's self on one hand. Then, on the other hand, learning to also forgive the people who have hurt you so bad that you can't move on is powerful. My only problem is that I wish some of the major events that happen to some of the characters didn't happen off screen.
Drive Your Car can be a lot to take in if you're not in the right frame of mind to watch it. Yes, the film has some extra baggage but hang in there. All the praise for this film was still well deserved overall.
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