Film Review: Drive My Car

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Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 3 hour long dramatic epic Drive My Car follows Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yūsuke Kafuku, a theatre actor, as his life begins to unravel after a minor car accident. An adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami (the same author of the short that became 2016’s Burning), Drive is daunting in its subtleties, and ever so gently moving.

This is a cinematic experience that rides almost entirely on its script, and performances thereof. With its sedated visual style and relaxed runtime, I can almost see it being equally effective as an audiobook, though the immersion demanded of a film such as this ends up paying off with an extremely satisfying final 40 minutes. The film is, after all, largely about how we as humans find it so hard to communicate, and to that end, Drive My Car’s believable characterisations owe a lot to body language, the quietest method of communication of all.

It’s worth commending the cast, as even through the film’s long-winded and novel-esque monologues, their humanity is palpable. People don’t usually speak like they do in films such as this, but Drive My Car makes it feel so effortlessly natural; characters tell stories that reveal more about themselves even if they aren’t directly speaking about their own experiences. Every performance has this layered feel, unique yet the same, and in slowly revealing their true intentions, aspirations and fears, the impression left is truly breathtaking.

What starts off as a fairly cold and staid experience slowly but surely takes shape, each subtle curve of the narrative shaving what could be a much more generic film in the hands of a lesser filmmaker into something beautiful. This is the kind of movie that washes over you, almost like spending time in a library or museum, where time slows down and you find yourself appreciating what would otherwise go completely and utterly unnoticed. It invites you to both introspect and observe in a way that almost feels free of any pretences, like a good therapy session.

Drive My Car is screening in Australian cinemas from Thursday 10th of February. For tickets and locations click here.