DRIVE MY CAR

For all the flaws of Drive My Car, the movie also has major assets, foremost a brilliant central performance by Hidetoshi Nishijima.

If you're thinking about watching Drive My Car, which just this evening won the Bafta for film not in the English language, you'll probably want an answer to three questions.

Firstly: does the movie warrant its three-hour runtime? Alas, it does not: the film probably would have worked better had it been a lot shorter.

Secondly: is Drive My Car really as good as the lavish critical praise seems to suggest? Not quite either, as the script is curiously lacking a clear focus, at times annoyingly spells out backstories and character motivations, and isn't nearly as interesting cinematically as it could be.

And thirdly you might ask yourself: is the movie still worth checking out then? I would definitely recommend so, because for all the flaws of Drive My Car, the movie also has major assets, foremost a brilliant central performance by Hidetoshi Nishijima, who conveys loss, loneliness and fierce professional pride with immense relatability.

Various scenes also display the kind of emotion, surprise and poignancy you'd hope to see in any movie aiming to find a place in your heart. So even if they don't all add up to a convincing whole, Drive My Car still has detours worth discovering.

release: 2021

director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada