Drive My Car (2021)
A thoughtful, and sometimes deep, movie about a man trying to understand his life.
Of course, that's what many of us would like to figure out, and so we're linked to his steady, slow, often restrained to the point of frustration process. That's part of what makes you latch on to it.
It would not be fair to say the movie is ponderous. But it is patient bordering on slow. And slow can be good. The writing is superb-often relying literally on the embedded play by Checkov within the larger movie which has some key echoes to the 1899 play. The heightened intensity of meaning made by linking the contemporary plot with the Russian one is both brilliant and a ploy, a device we've seen before. I'm not sure this is bad offhand, but it seems like a construction.
As someone from the United States, I was fascinated by the Japanese aspects to the film. But I was also struck by how overtly "westernized" it was, from the Checkov element to a series of smaller references, including one of the actors in the acting troupe who prefers to speak English. (The multiple languages used, including ASL or sign language, is a huge attraction, so this might be a necessity, having an "American" along.) The result is a film that is less Japanese than it might have been. I'm guessing it's about attracting an international audience-which is it pulled of superbly.
Then there is the car. I drive a Saab, a more recent one than the one in the movie, and I can only imagine how rare and interesting this car would be in Japan. Steering wheel on the left, but driving also on the left (which is not the norm in Europe, including Sweden, though they once were, in fact like Japan and Britain in this sense). A curiosity-the final scene shows the car on a highway driving on the right, as you would in the U. S. Not sure what that meant, but it had to have been deliberate.
In some ways the movie is great for being so steadfast, looking inward, asking questions about relationship and meaning outside of relationship. The lead actor is superb-indeed everyone is convincing and right on. That holds the sustained quiet feeling, with lots of driving along highways at night, together. Part of me loved the experience. Watch it if you are ready to settle in.
A thoughtful, and sometimes deep, movie about a man trying to understand his life.
Of course, that's what many of us would like to figure out, and so we're linked to his steady, slow, often restrained to the point of frustration process. That's part of what makes you latch on to it.
It would not be fair to say the movie is ponderous. But it is patient bordering on slow. And slow can be good. The writing is superb-often relying literally on the embedded play by Checkov within the larger movie which has some key echoes to the 1899 play. The heightened intensity of meaning made by linking the contemporary plot with the Russian one is both brilliant and a ploy, a device we've seen before. I'm not sure this is bad offhand, but it seems like a construction.
As someone from the United States, I was fascinated by the Japanese aspects to the film. But I was also struck by how overtly "westernized" it was, from the Checkov element to a series of smaller references, including one of the actors in the acting troupe who prefers to speak English. (The multiple languages used, including ASL or sign language, is a huge attraction, so this might be a necessity, having an "American" along.) The result is a film that is less Japanese than it might have been. I'm guessing it's about attracting an international audience-which is it pulled of superbly.
Then there is the car. I drive a Saab, a more recent one than the one in the movie, and I can only imagine how rare and interesting this car would be in Japan. Steering wheel on the left, but driving also on the left (which is not the norm in Europe, including Sweden, though they once were, in fact like Japan and Britain in this sense). A curiosity-the final scene shows the car on a highway driving on the right, as you would in the U. S. Not sure what that meant, but it had to have been deliberate.
In some ways the movie is great for being so steadfast, looking inward, asking questions about relationship and meaning outside of relationship. The lead actor is superb-indeed everyone is convincing and right on. That holds the sustained quiet feeling, with lots of driving along highways at night, together. Part of me loved the experience. Watch it if you are ready to settle in.