{"id":636469,"date":"2026-10-20T16:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636469\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:50:10","slug":"klara-and-the-sun-review-jenna-ortega-in-taika-waititis-ai-fable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636469\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Klara and the Sun’ Review: Jenna Ortega in Taika Waititi’s AI Fable"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEven before the wretched mess of Klara and the Sun<\/a> begins, the opening strains of Michael Giacchino\u2019s score playing over the production logos have us bracing for an overload of saccharine whimsy. But what follows is even worse, a film so at odds with itself that it keeps straining for poignancy while trampling on any hint of genuine emotion with forced humor that rarely prompts even a smile. Led by a misused Jenna Ortega<\/a> and Amy Adams<\/a>, Taika Waititi<\/a>\u2019s clanging dud has the distinction of being indisputably the worst screen adaptation of a novel by Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishiguro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether he\u2019s working in the vein of literary historical fiction, like An Artist of the Floating World or The Remains of the Day, or speculative dystopian sci-fi like Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro\u2019s elegant prose folds together predominantly first-person narration with subtlety and obfuscation to explore such foundational themes as memory and trauma. Waititi and co-screenwriter Dahvi Waller seem impervious to that refined sensibility, instead preferring to slather on the quirks, to stunningly charmless effect.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKlara and the Sun\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tA robot tale that ought to be scrapped for parts.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelease date: Friday, Oct. 23
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne, Rachel House, Jesse Griffin, Harry Greenwood, Molly Curnow
Director: Taika Waititi
Screenwriters: Taika Waititi, Dahvi Waller, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRated PG-13,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 56 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOrtega plays the eponymous Klara, a solar-powered AI companion who gives praise to the sun for each new day of life and energy, while reiterating her undying wish: \u201cPlease, let me be chosen.\u201d By chosen, she means purchased from The Friend Store to be taken home by someone for whom Klara can fulfill her purpose. But the boss addressed only as Store Manager (Natasha Lyonne<\/a>) holds out dwindling hope of her outdated B1 models being snapped up, especially once competition opens directly across the street, with the upgraded B3 robots parading in the window like Calvin Klein underwear models.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut while goofing around in the Friend Store window, Klara catches the eye of teenage shopper Josie (Mia Tharia). Despite the objections of her mother Chrissy (Adams), who is reluctant to spend money on a superseded model, Josie insists that radiantly optimistic Klara is the Artificial Friend she wants. Store Manager promptly ships off the robot in a coffin-sized box, assuring Chrissy that the purchase is fully refundable during the trial period.<\/p>\n

\n\tOrtega works hard to milk physical comedy out of lame tech humor, as Klara struggles to navigate the unfamiliar spaces \u2014 especially the stairs \u2014 of her new home on a rolling hillside surrounded by wheatfields, her vision constantly scrambling and recalibrating as she adjusts to first-time experiences like being outdoors. When she watches the sun setting directly behind a neighboring farm\u2019s barn on the horizon, Klara becomes convinced that\u2019s where the glowing orb lives.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Chrissy is annoyed by the AI resident and housekeeper Melania (Rachel House<\/a>) openly hostile, convinced the droid is angling to replace her, Klara remains full of pluck and determination, learning all that she can about her new friend Josie. Turns out Josie is a multidisciplinary genius since going through a Genetic Elevation Process known as Lifting. Having lost one daughter, Chrissy sought perfection in her remaining child, ignoring the risks of the modification procedure that have resulted in sickly Josie slowly succumbing to a chronic illness.<\/p>\n

\n\tEnlisting help from Josie\u2019s friend Rick (Aran Murphy), a self-taught robotics whiz, and to a lesser extent from an AI Scarecrow (Jesse Griffin), who seems to exist solely to hammer the half-baked Wizard of Oz connection, Klara sets about harnessing the sun\u2019s powers to heal Josie. But Chrissy has other contingency plans for life after Josie, involving eccentric scientist Henry Capaldi (Steve Buscemi<\/a>), who specializes in using technology to deal with family loss.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot only does Waititi\u2019s film have nothing to say about the evolving relationship between humans and AI, it fails even in the more pedestrian territory of friendship, love, grief and that tired old thematic staple of reminding us to cherish every moment while we can. The movie is fatally twee, a quality entirely antithetical to Ishiguro\u2019s exquisite writing \u2014 that applies both to the Japanese British author\u2019s fiction and his screenplays, like 2022\u2019s English-language Kurosawa remake, Living<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his early New Zealander films Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople<\/a> (we miss you, Sam Neill) and What We Do in the Shadows, Waititi showed a talent for infusing breezy, offbeat comedy with heart. Even his first Marvel foray, Thor: Ragnarok<\/a>, had a disarming cheerfulness to its bombast, with a double dose of campy fun from Cate Blanchett and Tom Hiddleston. But the director\u2019s crowd-pleasing instincts had devolved into cutesy self-congratulation by the time his wildly overpraised, Holocaust-trivializing satire Jojo Rabbit<\/a> came along. In its uncertain tonality and zany humor that falls flat, that\u2019s the Waititi film that Klara and the Sun most resembles.<\/p>\n

\n\tNone of the actors is well-served by the script, their characterizations either under-developed or inconsistent. Ortega, who brings such a spirited edge to darker material like Wednesday<\/a> or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice<\/a>, is at sea here trying to find some kind of feeling behind Klara\u2019s wide-eyed wonder, her beaming smile and confusion about the strange ways of the human world. And Adams\u2019 blend of haughtiness and melancholy never gels.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt must be said, regrettably, that Adams could not have been less flatteringly photographed or outfitted. Costume designer Mayes Rubeo has dressed her like an ostentatious kook in boxy coats and ugly prints, while Lyonne \u2014 who really should be dispensing snark and swearing like a trucker, not sauntering around in some kind of Roald Dahl nightmare \u2014 is dressed like a \u201870s budget airline flight attendant. It\u2019s hard to make the breathtaking locations of New Zealand\u2019s South Island look uninteresting, but DP Michael Berlucchi gives everything a bland sheen devoid of personality or a sense of place.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot to pick on Tharia and Murphy, who do what they can with their roles, but Josie and Rick are the dreariest screen teens in recent memory. They are a breath of fresh air, however, compared to the elaborately couture-clad, insufferably conceited guests at Josie\u2019s birthday party, flaunting their \u201cLifted\u201d cleverness while ganging up on unlifted Rick. That party scene is one of many points where you get the feeling Waititi is going for the kind of oddball expressionism that distinguished early Tim Burton films. Needless to say, it misses that mark and just about any other that might be considered entertaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even before the wretched mess of Klara and the Sun begins, the opening strains of Michael Giacchino\u2019s score…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[105440,156,17632,197221,245891,409,64612,111,139,69,260639,7016,14914],"class_list":["post-636469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-amy-adams","tag-entertainment","tag-jenna-ortega","tag-kazuo-ishiguro","tag-klara-and-the-sun","tag-movies","tag-natasha-lyonne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rachel-house","tag-steve-buscemi","tag-taika-waititi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}