Review: “Drive My Car” is a stirring and subtle depiction of loss

By Will Cover     2/22/22 11:17pm

Rating: ★★★★

“Drive My Car” is a movie without flourish or visual spectacle. It’s subtly acted and slowly paced. It’s almost three hours long. And it’s one of the best films of the year. “Drive My Car” is currently playing in theaters and will become available on HBO Max on Mar. 2. 

The movie opens with a prolonged prelude of theater director and actor Yusuke Kafuku’s marriage to Oto, a television writer. Oto finds creativity through passion, describing newfound story ideas to Kafuku as they have sex. Kafuku’s love for Oto is clear, but Oto’s feelings are left more ambiguous as she cheats on him and dies suddenly within the first 45 minutes of the movie. 

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“Drive My Car” then jumps forward two years as Kafuku directs a performance of the Russian play “Uncle Vanya.” The film’s emotional nucleus takes place within its titular red Saab, as Kafuku is driven to work by a reserved chauffeur, Misaki Watari. 

Kafuku loves his car and riding in it is sacred, because it’s where he learns the lines to his plays. This routine takes on a new meaning when Oto dies, and Kafuku plays the recording of her reading the other parts in “Uncle Vanya.” At first, these car rides are relatively mundane, albeit tinged with sadness. Over time, though, Kafuku develops a friendship with Watari as they reveal that they are both grappling with grief. 

Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s reserved approach with “Drive My Car” is a necessary response to the tragedy experienced by Kafuku and is why this movie works so well. Where so many movies might take a bombastic approach depicting immediate pain, Hamaguchi focuses on the lingering aftermath of loss. Kafuku has accepted his wife’s death, but that doesn’t mean he’s moved on.

The film’s deliberate development of its characters is what makes the movie's runtime essential rather than excessive. The viewer is given time to sit with each new morsel of detail revealed to them, and no character is disregarded. While Oto could’ve easily been a vilified figure, particularly given how quickly she physically exits the story, Hamaguchi instead presents her with empathy and complexity. In the hands of someone as skilled as Hamaguchi, no aspect of this film feels superfluous. At the same time, rather than telling the viewer what they should leave the theater thinking, he challenges them to decide for themselves. 

Sometimes, the conventional wisdom is conventional for a reason. “Drive My Car” is the first film to sweep the major film critic groups since 2010 and just scored four Oscar nominations, including best picture. It’s probably not surprising, then, that this is a remarkable movie.

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