'Klara and the Sun' Review
Release Date: 10/23/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Drama. SciFi.
MPAA: Rated PG13.
Distributor: Columbia Pictures.
The Verdict: A Mistake
On paper, a Taika Waititi version of Pinocchio is more than intriguing. Klara and the Sun is not quite that, but it is close enough. The Kiwi director has always made movies with a unique mix of wit and wonder. You can't miss his work, but even the most devoted Waititi fans might argue he's in a bit of a slump. You could say it is overexposure, his formula running dry, or just a lack of good material, but his films aren't drawing the kind of attention they did a decade ago. Klara and the Sun isn't a slump-buster. It’s a sci-fi dramedy with a classic, fatal-tone problem. It’s not funny enough, and it’s not dramatically interesting enough, so it ends up being close to nothing.
Klara and the Sun adapts Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel. Jenna Ortega stars as Klara, a hyper-realistic android who longs to become a companion to a special family. It's become harder for her and her fellow B-1 Models to attract eager consumers, especially when the much chicer B-3 Models are being sold across the street. This doesn't dull Klara’s relentless optimism, shown in her daily prayers to the sun. Needless to say, this character plays well against Ortega’s typical macabre roles. She’s all smiles and childlike innocence, as far from Wednesday Addams as humanly possible.
It’s hard to grasp how far this future has fallen when you’re constantly seeing it through the eyes of someone as optimistic as Klara, but hints of a world in crisis still surface. The Store Manager (a typically reliable Natasha Lyonne) tells her androids about a time when the internet existed, but now can only tell them classic stories like The Little Mermaid from memory. For every fashion-forward aristocrat who roams the street outside the store, there are just as many homeless people with nowhere to go, so stuck in time that Klara and her cohorts remember every one. These are all interesting details that Waititi makes a part of his background, yet you could say he makes the mistake of hinting at more interesting stories than the one we are about to experience.
Klara eventually finds the match she was looking for, attracting Josie's (Mia Tharia) attention. Much to her mother's (Amy Adams) chagrin, Josie insists they bring Klara home to their secluded, massive house, surrounded by miles and miles of grass and wheat fields. Josie and mom, plus housekeeper Melania (Rachel House), live there by themselves, shut off from the world. They’re a family that has dealt with tragedy and is dealing with hardships, as Josie battles chronic medical issues spurred by an intelligence-enhancing brain procedure known as “lifting”. Mom wants her to be a burgeoning genius, which is why she’s hostile to Klara’s naivety.
Waititi plays the “fish-out-of-water” card over and over again, as Klara literally has to calibrate to the strangeness of the world around her. Improbably stealing a plot point from Cars, she’s terrified of a giant tractor that grazes the field. She also thinks the sun lives in a nearby barn. These misunderstandings are decently amusing at first, but they get old, and Waititi’s signature snark feels disconnected from a film that's really trying to make you care about its character relationships and dramatic stakes. I think this comedy-drama balance is something Jojo Rabbit accomplished impressively, but it doesn’t really work here.
If Taika held onto any semblance of control over the shape of his movie, I think he really lets go in the third act. This adds intrigue and a new dimension to the film, but it isn't necessarily satisfying when you’re watching a movie that already feels like it's worn out its welcome. This section also relies heavily on Amy Adams, who tries her best but is again asked to rescue an underwritten supporting character. She is clearly the bellwether of the cast, and some of her more extended scenes with Ortega are nice enough. But these positives, plus the mostly winning sunkissed visuals, aren't nearly enough to cover some of the core issues with Klara and the Sun’s storytelling. Vintage Taika Waititi still shows up now and then, but this wasn't the return to form many hoped for.
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