This is a self-consciously arty amalgam of Murakami short stories that might have been better derived from just one. As it is, the greatest pleasure is the film's travelog aspect, with three distinct sections set in contrasting parts of Japan. Most wearying is the way writer/director. Ryusuke Hamaguchi underlines the connections between the film's story and those of Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA and Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT, just in case we're too stupid to work them out for ourselves. In between these extremes of pleasure and irritation are lesser pleasures and irritations, which balance out in my case as wondering whether it's worth sitting through the film's lengthy runtime. There's a lot of "it's a masterpiece" going on out there, but for me it's too pleased with itself to be any such thing.
Review of Drive My Car
