Movie Review - Drive My Car

This is Japan's official submission for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards. It's been critically acclaimed and nominated at various organizations. Some have said that it's one of the best films of the year. What might be appealing to some critics is its meta-textual nature. This film is about people who work as actors, playwrights and theater directors. Hollywood loves films about itself. Critics love it too. Yes, theater is seen as separate from Hollywood, but there's so much crossover in the theater world that it might as well be a part of Hollywood.

What might also be appealing is this film being about grief and dealing with loss. Plenty of people have suffered from grief and loss. This film addresses it, not in a ridiculous or over-the-top way, but in a muted or subdued way that perhaps feels more akin to real-life. There is a premise here that might not be akin to real-life, or something that would really happen, although it's not so far fetched.

Hidetoshi Nishijimi stars as Yûsuke Kafuku, a playwright and theater director whose work requires him to travel. He's planning on going on a trip. He's married and has no children. His wife stays at home while he's on his trips. One day, as he's about to leave on another trip, his flight gets canceled. He decides to go home and spend the night with his wife. When he returns, he finds his wife is having an affair. Yet, he doesn't say anything to her. He doesn't even let her know that he knows. He sneaks out without her seeing him, allowing her to continue her affair.

Later, his wife dies and the film picks up two years later, as he's in Hiroshima putting on a production of another play called Uncle Vanya. Kafuku requests that he stay in a hotel that is a hour away from where the play is being performed. He likes driving and listening to the lines of the play, while on the road. The people producing the play have a rule that he must have a driver who drives him. Kafuku cannot drive himself.

Tôko Miura co-stars as Misaki Watari, a woman who has been hired to be Kafuku's driver. She's an austere or taciturn woman who is very professional. She's quiet for the most part, always serious, humorless and just does her job with no complaints. It's revealed later that she's also suffering from grief and loss. For her, it's her parents, specifically her mother whom died in a freak accident.

Both Kafuku and his driver have to deal with their losses. What gets the ball rolling is the fact that the young man who was having the affair with Kafuku's wife is also an actor and he gets hired to work on Kafuku's current play. Kafuku knows that the young man had the affair with his wife. Yet, Kafuku hires the young man anyway. I'm not sure that the film provides us with insight as to why Kafuku does this. The young man seems to be a talented actor, but it's likely other talented actors auditioned for the part. Why the young man?

It seems as if the film is building to some kind of confrontation between Kafuku and the young man, which the film has, but it's not in the way one would expect. The young man approaches Kafuku asking to have a drink and to talk. The confrontation between the two men isn't a fight or some dramatic tête-à-tête. The confrontation is instead quiet and peaceful, which doesn't resolve anything. I'm not sure it provides much insight into why Kafuku's wife had the affair.

The confrontation between the two men is likely providing some insight, but that insight is rather opaque or metaphorical. The two never come out and directly put their cards on the table. Kafuku never directly states that he knows that the young man slept with his wife. The young man never directly states that he had the affair with Kafuku's wife. The two dance around the subject. That somehow was unfulfilling for me.

The rest of the film is about watching Kafuku be driven around Hiroshima in his two-door, red Saab. All of it seems in service to the woman driver. I can't say that there was anything about her that ever interested or engaged me, mainly due to her humorless personality.

The film does have an aspect to it that was somewhat interesting. The film seems to be about multilingualism. The play that Kafuku is producing is using people who speak various languages. Some speak Japanese, but others speak Chinese, or Korean, or English. One person even speaks only in sign language. The filmmaker here has extended sequences where we watch this person do sign language. This led me to feel as if the film was about how people can or can't communicate with each other, as well as the various ways in which they can.

Not Rated but contains sexuality and language.
Running Time: 3 hrs.

In theaters.