Taika Waititi tries to pile on every emotion all the time, leaving the film unexpectedly flat
Jennie Koh
11.04.2026
*This review contains spoilers*
In the roster of book-to-movie adaptations this past year, ranging from crash-and-burn misses like “Verity” to sensational hits like “Project Hail Mary,” “Klara and the Sun” is, regrettably, a miss. Released Oct. 23 and directed by the recently flailing Taika Waititi this comedy-drama, sci-fi fusion film is based on Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel of the same name.
“Klara and the Sun” follows Klara (Jenna Ortega), an advanced solar-powered Artificial Friend — colloquially referred to as an AF — with a penchant for randomly raising her leg and a level of emotional intelligence that surpasses most others of her kind. She is taken in by the spunky but chronically ill teenager Josie (Mia Tharia) and her grieving mother, Chrissie (Amy Adams), who share a strained relationship.
The film touches upon a variety of themes — friendship, faith, grief and love — but barely skims the surface. No real emotional message sticks with the audience in the entirety of its hour and 56-minute runtime, resulting in the film trying and failing to be profound.
The movie emphatically overexplains itself, from what Klara is and why she exists — World War III, basically — to the retirement yard where she will inevitably go to die, which Klara lightheartedly jokes about to the wisecracking sStore mManager (Natasha Lyonne) as she longs for someone to buy her. Even the process of lifting, which involves genetically enhancing children, is explicitly explained by Josie; though these choices allow for easy comprehension within limited screentime, adhering to more “show” and less “tell” would have allowed for more mystery to seep through.
The film’s comedic tone, imbued with Waititi’s signature deadpan humor, is perhaps both its greatest merit and detriment. It maintains its whimsical eccentricity throughout, characters regularly quipping one-liners, and while fun, they detract from moments that call for a more somber mood. Viewers spend the entirety of the film anticipating a darker turn that never comes, and the film prioritizes grasping jokes like the sStore mManager’s comment at how everyone was much more connected when social media existed over character and relationship development.
This is emphasized by scenes and characters that virtually go nowhere. When Klara first arrives, Melania Housekeeper (Rachel House) notes that Klara is Mexican and chides Chrissie for getting a Mexican AF as a white woman, but nothing regarding race, class or privilege is ever brought up again. This is in spite of the film having the opportunity to explore the socioeconomic consequences of remaining unlifted through Josie’s friend Rick (Aran Murphy), who resultantly exists within a lower social tier and lives in poverty in the book. Rick has virtually no role in the film outside of Josie other than the occasional mention of his robotics prowess, and even then their relationship is underdeveloped, with the pair barely sharing any meaningful scenes.
Klara also befriends a scarecrow robot named Scarecrow (Jesse Griffin), who serves no relevance to the overarching plot and ends up exploding into flames just as quickly as he’s introduced, giving little time for the audience to form any semblance of sympathy for him when he dies.
The lack of interpersonal character development is perhaps most palpable when the film approaches its major conflict. Chrissie decides to keep Klara for good after realizing Klara has the uncanny ability to impersonate anyone, including Josie, and enlists the help of Henry (Steve Buscemi) to input Klara’s consciousness into an artificial Josie-bot if Josie passes. This leads the audience to expect a big confrontation when Josie finds out, since there had already been hints that she had her suspicions and felt afraid that Klara would replace her in the eyes of Chrissie and Rick.
Instead, there’s a tepid argument between Josie and Chrissie before Josie storms away. Even the following supposedly climactic scenes of self-sacrifice on Klara’s part feel lacking, and this is the same for Josie and Chrissie’s heart-to-heart while they search for her, where they spew shallow statements about grief.
However, the film does have its strengths; it is cinematically stunning with its bright colors and brighter soundtrack, especially when contrasted with the menacing music accompanying every Cootings Machine appearance. Along with the visuals and accompanying sound effects for Klara’s box vision, the cinematography added a lot to the audience’s understanding of how Klara sees the world.
Ortega also shines as the quirky and expressive Klara, doing a phenomenal job at getting the audience to root for her and her big, doe eyes. The friendship between Klara and Josie is shown in sweet montages, and Klara’s earnestness is endearing. The rest of the cast did what they could with the material they were given, including Amy Adams, though it was by no means her best work.
At the end of the movie, Klara survives and eventually goes to the retirement yard with the other AFs. As she tells her story, the film ends on a half-baked sentiment from Klara about how love is happiness and pain together, and a secret third thing: special. Yes, love is special. Groundbreaking.
“Klara and the Sun” is a great film for what it is — a happy, feel-good movie following a happy, feel-good protagonist. Unfortunately, it leaves much to be desired, especially in comparison to its acclaimed novel counterpart. The film spends its entirety wading around in the shallow end despite the potential to dive deep, saying both everything and nothing at all.
