Synopsis

Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theatre festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koji Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind. Adapted from Haruki Murakami’s short story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is a haunting road movie traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance, and peace.

Critics Views

“Despite what may initially seem to be a somewhat straightforward contemporary drama, Hamaguchi has crafted a rich, skilfully layered masterwork with flawless performances and a script that is a screenwriter’s holy grail. It sticks in your brain for days and nudges you to take it in again.” The Playlist

“Nearly every scene of this richly novelistic movie — which won the festival’s screenplay prize — teems with ideas about grief and betrayal, the nature of acting, the possibility (and impossibility) of catharsis through art, and the simple bliss of watching lights and landscapes fly past your car window.” Los Angeles Times

“It’s a graceful, aching film that sculpts and stretches Murakami’s story into an enchanting three-hour epic (my, do the minutes fly by) about trauma and mourning, shared solitude, and the possibility of moving on. The narrative also doubles as a lovely ode to the car itself, and the strange ways that people open up when cocooned inside them.” The Film Stage

“The result is a low-key but lingeringly resonant tale about a strange chapter in the life of a grieving theatre director — an intimate stage whisper of a film in which every scene feels like a secret.” Indiewire

AWARDS

Winner of three prizes at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Screenplay and nominated for the Palme D’Or

Academy Awards 2022
Winner: Best International Feature Film
Nominated: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Adapted Sceenplay

BAFTA
Winner: Best Film Not in the English Language
Nominated: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay

Film Rating

IMDb
 Critics: 91%  Audience 86%

Rotten Tomatoes
Critics positive review 97%   Audience Liked It 78%

 Stockbridge Audience Score: 69%

Audience Comments

Not the sort of film I would go to normally.
3 hours is too long. Several places where it could have ended neatly much earlier
I thought the film was well-acted and thought-provoking but too long.
Really enjoyed the film which was quite mesmerising at times. 3 hours has to be too long for a film though.
Oddly well paced given its 3 hr duration
Always interesting to see a foreign film, I liked the subtle acting and the message is thought provoking but it was much too long! The interminable rehearsals could have been better edited but apart from that I thought it was well acted and produced
Kept my attention for most of the 3 hours (maybe a bit too much of the rehearsals for Uncle Vanya and the car being driven!) but great acting and well-deserved awards for the screenplay
Thoughtful nuanced and challenging
Too long
Good to see a real ‘art’ movie in Stockbridge