Based on Haruki Murakami's 2014 short story of the same name,[5] it stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as a theatre director who directs a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya while dealing with the death of his wife.

[6] Reika Kirishima, Tōko Miura, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, and Masaki Okada also star.

Drive My Car had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and won three awards, including Best Screenplay.

[10] Stage actor and director Yūsuke Kafuku lives in Tokyo with his wife Oto, a screenwriter who conceives her stories after sex and narrates them to him.

When a theater festival Yūsuke was slated to play in is delayed, he returns home, where he finds his wife having sex with Kōji, but does not disturb them.

The theatre festival requires that he be chauffeured in his own car for insurance reasons, and despite his initial reluctance, he eventually bonds with his reserved young driver, Misaki Watari.

He is impressed by Lee Yoo-na, a mute actress who communicates in Korean Sign Language, and he also unexpectedly casts Kōji as Uncle Vanya.

After a rehearsal, Kōji invites Yūsuke for a drink, where the young actor pushes against harsh assessments of his character but admits to his unrequited love for Oto.

Misaki reveals that she escaped the landslide but chose not to pull her mother from the wreckage, receiving a scar on her cheek she has chosen not to have treated.

Yoo-na meaningfully delivers Sonya's final lines: "We shall hear the angels, we shall see the whole sky all in diamonds, we shall see how all earthly evil, all our sufferings, are drowned in the mercy that will fill the whole world.

[5] For the film version, the co-authors were reported by The New York Times to have "greatly expanded on the (short) story's central dynamic, which turns on a sexist widowed actor and the much-younger female driver who motors him around in his cherished Saab.

[20] Writing for Pitchfork, Quinn Moreland wrote that the soundtrack "possesses a cool remove, mirroring the film's glacial profundity with organic nuance and contemplative improvisation.

"[22] Writing for PopMatters, Jay Honeycomb wrote; "Ishibashi's music washes over you when it comes, allowing the seeds planted by Hamaguchi to germinate and grow without drowning you in sentimentality.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Drive My Car's imposing runtime holds a rich, patiently engrossing drama that reckons with self-acceptance and regret.

[30] The film received a positive review from Manohla Dargis in The New York Times, where she wrote, "Drive My Car sneaks up on you, lulling you in with visuals that are as straightforward as the narrative is complex.

Take for example a shot of Yūsuke and Misaki's hand through the car's sunroof holding cigarettes as to not let the smoke permeate their sacred mode of transportation—an unspoken communion of respect.

"[34] It ranked number 5 on Collider's list of "The 20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far," writing that "Hamaguchi crafted a timeless examination of loss; while it’s initially a tough premise to sit through, Drive My Car becomes rewarding for those that invest in its message about the necessity of healing.