Drive My Car

 

True story, when my friend and I started watching this film on HBO Max, we thought, great, we get to watch it for free.  Little did we know that it was a Japanese film that didn’t have close captioning in English.  If you’re Japanese or understand it, that’s fine, if you don’t, not so much.  The story centers on a famous stage actor/director, his dead screenwriting wife, bad eyesight, coming to terms with her passing, not being able to drive his car and the driver assigned to him when he’s contracted to direct the play Uncle Vanya at a Hiroshima Drama Festival.  Since I’ve never seen Uncle Vanya or read the play, I would be hard pressed to tell you intelligently, that this film draws parallels between the director, his driver, the actors, and the play.  I will, however, say, that when we did get to see it with subtitles in English, it made more sense as to why things happened in the manner that they occurred.  There are long silences, outbursts, odd timings, characters who at first glance don’t seem to fit the picture, but as you take the backseat and travel along with them, you understand why these two need each other to make it through another day in the life and why neither of them should even consider giving up.  Rating: Waiting for Godot or somebody like him aka 3.5 stars.  Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPKPb_RTwI