"Drive My Car" - Review

Yusuke Takafu (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a stage actor and director who specialises in multi-lingual productions of classic works. His world is shattered when his bloved wife and muse Oto (Reika Kirishima) passes away, and he tries to move on. Years later, suffering from glaucoma in his eye, he is brought on to direct an adaptation of "Uncle Vanya", and assigned a young driver named Misaki (Toko Miura) to transport him. Despite his misgivings, he loves the project, and this guarded man comes to terms with his grief and secrets of his path through bonding on the frequent car journeys with the mysterious but dependable Misaki...

The synopsis is simple, but the movie is deceptive like that. Yes, it is a character piece between these two adrift, lonesome souls on long car journeys, but that's only a piece of the puzzle. This movie is getting a lot of hype, and indeed picked up a "Best Picture" nomination and victory for "Best Foreign Language Film" at the Academy Awards (apparently "Parasite" is enough, we've had our fun with "non-English" movies, they should know their place), and I can see why. It's bloody long, but (refreshingly) doesn't drag. We're not talking "Zack Snyder" here.
It's pensive, slow, and deliberate, with lingering shots and marvellous cinematography (it's particularly good that director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and his cinematographer Hidetoshi Shinomiya don't make us feel trapped or claustrophobic in the car, but quite the opposite: quite free and open, oddly) so it should be a wank-a-thon mile-a-minute pretense ride.
But I loved it. It's a mesmerising movie about sadness and communication (a lovely dinner table scene with Park Yoo-Rim's sign-language fluent actor is just wonderfully sweet) and how it leaves us adrift. It's about loneliness and happiness in equal measure. Simple gestures like our 2 leads trailing cigarettes together through the sun-roof, or sharing a quiet drink in a tiny noir-bar are immeasurably important to them. It's affecting, touching, and deeply engaging. Yes, it's bloody long, and only tends to drag in the third act slightly, but everything up here is still warm and all too human. Particular shoutout goes to the 50 (!) minutes of build up so that we understand the relationship between Yusuke (Nishijima is a subdued and marvellously understated actor) and Oto (Kirishima makes her far more likeable and complex than would be the case in lesser works), and the pensive ending gives way to an emotional stage montage which is really, truly earned.
I genuinely get the hype, and was happy that it lived up to it, and it's going to affect different people in different ways. I recommend it.