Klara and the Sun
October 20th, 2026
MOVIE: KLARA AND THE SUN
STARRING: JENNA ORTEGA, AMY ADAMS, STEVE BUSCEMI, MIA THARIA
DIRECTED BY: TAIKA WAITITI
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 2 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 116 MINUTES
The science fiction genre has always been my favorite. Alien. Blade Runner. Star Wars. Arrival. Interstellar. And so many more. It’s a genre that feels inventive while remaining uniquely connected to us at all times. Klara and the Sun, adapted from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, offers a more subdued kind of science fiction, one that explores robots as companions and the enduring question of whether artificial beings can actually experience feelings. What may have worked as an emotional and charming book fails to translate to the screen. Klara and the Sun attempts to be a luminous drama about a robot helping to hold a broken family together, but instead, it becomes a movie with nothing bright to show for it.
Directed by Oscar-winner Taika Waititi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dahvi Waller, the story begins in a discount store selling personal companion robots. Klara (Jenna Ortega) gazes outside and speaks to the sun, which powers her through its solar energy. She expresses gratitude for its warmth and nourishment. The store manager (Natasha Lyonne) places Klara in the front window for the week, where precocious teenager Josie (Mia Tharia) notices her. After connecting with the robot, Josie convinces her mother, Chrissy (Amy Adams), that she needs a companion of her own. Although Klara is an outdated model, she is the robot Josie wants.
From there, Klara and the Sun focuses on the relationship between the title character and her human companion. After undergoing a procedure known as “lifting,” Josie became exceptionally intelligent, but the process also left her seriously ill. Now, Klara must adapt to her new life while helping protect the friend she has come to love. The premise offers a sweet exploration of friendship and the connection between humans and robots, but Waititi and his collaborators fail to make the characters or their emotional struggles resonate in any meaningful way.
At first, Klara and the Sun feels like a Tim Burton film repurposed as a Taika Waititi production. Although both directors possess distinctive styles, Burton’s aesthetic might have brought more life to this material. Much like Klara standing behind glass, Waititi keeps his distance from the emotional issues at the heart of the story. He approaches the deeper moral questions surrounding the treatment of robots as humans and the ethics of keeping loved ones alive, only to retreat before exploring the difficult choices these subjects demand.
The bigger problem is that Klara and the Sun never gives us a compelling reason to care about any of its characters, despite attempting to capture the internal conflicts of three. Adams is reduced to playing a grieving, troubled mother, a role that barely scratches the surface of her considerable talents. Ortega at least gets an opportunity to move beyond her familiar moody-teen persona, but her performance is limited by a character defined largely by robotic quirks and whimsical obliviousness. Ultimately, the blame falls on Waititi, who abandons his signature brand of New Zealand humor without finding a compelling alternative, while doing little to develop the story’s dystopian future.
Klara and the Sun lacks the energy, emotional depth, and imaginative spark that could have made it shine. Better to turn out the light.
2 STARS
KLARA AND THE SUN IS PLAYING IN THEATERS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 2026.
Written by: Leo Brady
